Court Claim: Highview Parking/DCB Legal

Coupon-mad

Looks fine - and I agree about the superfluous paragraph.  And this should be removed as well:

"Which then leads to the question, how does the Claimant arrive at the Amount Claimed for a Total of £219.00. The Defendant has excluded the £35 Court Fee & £50 Legal representative's costs from the Total amount for the purposes of this defence point."

Le_Kirk

............. and look again at the spelling of defence, maybe not important at this stage but if you make similar errors in the defence and/or witness statement that changes the sense of your submissions ............

unclebobsleigh

Second draft of the defence based on all your suggestions below. I welcome your thoughts.

1. The parking charges referred to in this claim did not arise from any agreement of terms. The charge and the claim was an unexpected shock. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all.  It is denied that any conduct by the driver was a breach of any prominent term and it is denied that this Claimant (understood to have a bare licence as managers) has standing to sue or form contracts in their own name. Liability is denied, whether or not the Claimant is claiming 'keeper liability', which is unclear from the Particulars.

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question but liability is denied. The identity of the driver at the material time is unknown to the Defendant. The Defendant was not the only potential driver of the vehicle in question and is unable to recall who was or was not driving on an unremarkable day over 3 years ago.

3.  Where it is noted that the Claimant has elected not to comply with the 'keeper liability' requirements set out in the PoFA, Claimant has included a clear falsehood in their POC which were signed under a statement of truth by the Claimant's legal representative who should know (as the Claimant undoubtedly does) that it is untrue to state that the Defendant is 'liable as keeper'.  This can never be the case with a Highview Parking Limited claim because this parking firm, same as any Group Nexus company, have never used the POFA 2012 wording, of their own volition.  Not only does the POC include this misleading untruth, but the Claimant has also added an unidentified sum in false 'damages' to enhance the claims.  So sparse is their statement of case, that the Claimant has failed to even state any facts about the alleged breach or the amount of the parking charge that was on the signage, because it cannot have been over £100.

4. In line with the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims, the Defendant has made every effort to engage with the Claimant in an effort to settle the matter swiftly without court proceedings. The Defendant has sought further details in relation to the particulars of the claim from the Claimant. The Claimant placed the case “on-hold” until such time they could provide the requested information. The Claimant has been unable or unwilling to provide said detail for over a year. The Claimant is now intending to pursue recovery of alleged debt via litigation instead of any meaningful exchange of information to settle the matter fairly.

Coupon-mad

Looks fine.

unclebobsleigh

Thank you!

I believe i have until the 17th to submit my defence. I am away from approx 13-20th. What's the best way to handle this?

KeithP

unclebobsleigh said:

Thank you!

I believe i have until the 17th to submit my defence. I am away from approx 13-20th. What's the best way to handle this?

File you Defence when you are ready. There is no 'best' time. That short absence won't be a problem.

unclebobsleigh

KeithP said:

unclebobsleigh said:

Thank you!

I believe i have until the 17th to submit my defence. I am away from approx 13-20th. What's the best way to handle this?

File you Defence when you are ready. There is no 'best' time. That short absence won't be a problem.

Thank you. That's one less stress.

Was fearful if i submitted early next week and the claimant wanted to continue to court i might miss deadlines for additional forms that need to be filled in or witness statement etc.

1. Can this entire process be tracked online or via email or will i need to have access to my physical mail for some mandatory paper based bit?
2. To put my mind at rest, and for information for others, what are the deadlines for the next steps? Please feel free to tell me to search or see the stickys if this has been asked a million times.
   

Can't thank you all enough. Hopefully this thread is useful to someone else going through exactly the same thing too.

Le_Kirk

When the CCBC receive your defence, they will send a copy to the claimant (or their solicitor) who will then have 28 days to decide whether to proceed or drop the case.  The only rider I would add about sending it early is to make sure you send it during normal business hours as it has been noted that CCBC servers do not react favourably to e-mails received outside 09.00 - 16.00 or week-ends.

unclebobsleigh

Filled defence via email as per KeithP's instructions a few days ago.

MCOL confirms defence received and DQ forms sent on the 12th. How long do i have to respond to the DQ forms?

Coupon-mad

The letter will tell you when it arrives. No rush.

This is also covered in bargepole's 'court procedures' thread linked under the NEWBIES thread under the red capitals heading IMPORTANT: KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN.