Parking CCJ set aside, some advice required

EpsomJim

Just to say I made the amendments implied by @Coupon-mad and sent in N244, witness statement and draft order this morning. Will call up to make payment shortly, and see where we go from there (I'm guessing Croydon CC for a hearing...)

Coupon-mad

OK, then revisit @Brokenchief 's thread to see the skeleton argument and 5 attachments you need to file & serve (say a week before the hearing) in support of the legal argument that the claim is 'dead' and the C must start again.

EpsomJim

Coupon-mad said:

OK, then revisit @Brokenchief 's thread to see the skeleton argument and 5 attachments you need to file & serve (say a week before the hearing) in support of the legal argument that the claim is 'dead' and the C must start again.

Thank you but, as you kindly pointed out yesterday, the claim cannot be dismissed as I paid it.

On that basis I removed the following from my WS:

(c ) Order for the original claim to be dismissed, and the claimant to reimburse the defendant the £xxx already paid.

1.7  Given that more than 4 months has passed from issue of proceedings and service of the claim was defective (i.e. it was never served) I submit that this particular claim is dead and the period for service cannot be extended by this application process.  I have no details of the particulars of this claim, therefore, if the Claimant believes there is a cause of action then the correct procedure would be to file a claim afresh and to the right address, after furnishing me with the information required under the pre-action protocol for debt claims, issued this time to the correct address for service, which is XXX.

1.7.1 In the alternative, CPR 13.3 applies and there are very good reasons to set aside this exaggerated claim, which includes a disproportionate and indeed, false 'debt recovery' sum.  In fact, no debt recovery occurred nor cost the claimant any money whatsoever, in addition to £85 parking charge.  The Government has described the false fixed 'fee' of £70 as 'designed to extort money from motorists' in the new statutory Code of Practice this February, and has banned it.  I have good prospects of defending a claim, if served with one, but have seen no evidence, basis nor particulars of claim and the Claimant should be required to file afresh, if they believe they have a cause of action. 

I changed the relevant field in the N244 form to:

This is a mandatory set aside situation pursuant to CPR 13.2. The Defendant seeks the order to set aside because he was unaware of the proceedings. The Claimant served proceedings at an address not used by the Defendant since 2018.

To avoid referring to 13.3

One thing I wasn't 100% sure on was when/whether to attach evidence of my two house moves. Is that something that I can provide before the hearing in a supplementary WS?

Coupon-mad

@EpsomJim
One thing I wasn't 100% sure on was when/whether to attach evidence of my two house moves. Is that something that I can provide before the hearing in a supplementary WS?

Just seen this...Yes.  You MUST send that evidence to the court and Gladstones.

EpsomJim

Thank you @Coupon-mad, will make sure I do.

Quick update from me. Got a letter through just before Christmas. Have been allocated a telephone hearing on 16th May. Estimated to last 15mins. Shame it's not in person, or a little nearer, but one step closer to getting this horrible situation behind me I guess!

Will pull together what I think is required for my bundle, and post her for views. Many thanks to all of you for your advice so far. 

Coupon-mad

EpsomJim said:

Thank you @Coupon-mad, will make sure I do.

Quick update from me. Got a letter through just before Christmas. Have been allocated a telephone hearing on 16th May. Estimated to last 15mins. Shame it's not in person, or a little nearer, but one step closer to getting this horrible situation behind me I guess!

Will pull together what I think is required for my bundle, and post her for views. Many thanks to all of you for your advice so far. 

Please please stay here in between, or come back regularly to read the latest posts every week, or you might miss the upcoming Public Consultation.

I am certain you want your response heard by the Government to make the necessary law change get through.

if you are not here very often, you'll need to bookmark the thread by MSE_JC at the top of the forum and set email alerts for bookmarked threads.

This what the 'top of the forum' looks like...

EpsomJim

I absolutely will do. Thank you for the reminder.

EpsomJim

Haven't seen anything come up on consultation yet @Coupon-mad, but keeping my eye out.

In the meantime, as we get closer to set aside date on 16th May, the Claimant's solicitors (Gladstones) have sent their witness statement. Highlights (or can post the whole thing if required):

• Drafted by legal assistant
• Note that I have paid Claim, so 'liability is not in dispute' (I did pay the claim as, without doing so, my house purchase would have fallen through. It clearly would have been in dispute if I'd actually got the Form...)
• Not Claimant's intention to actively participate in application by attending hearing or instructing advocate. Claimant's position that any costs related to application met by me
• Leave decision to set aside at discretion of court, but Claimant has asked them to confirm background of Claim 'to demonstrate the Claimant opposing the award of any potential costs that might be sought by the Defendant, as the Claimant's Claim was issued in full compliance with the CPR'.

• Claim referred to them 4/06/20
• Sent 'Letter before claim' to my old address (no date mentioned in WS), as this was the address supplied by the DVLA as my address at the time of the contravention
• No response, so Firm 'carried out a trace via Experian, in order to establish whether an alternative address could be ascertained, in order to satisfy the requirements for service of a Claim Form as prescribed by CPR 6.9'
• Trace results revealed possible alternative address for me. 'My Firm therefore sent out a letter to the Defendant at that address inviting the Defendant to contact them and confirm that this address was now their current address. As the Defendant failed to make contact with my Firm, that address could not be confirmed for GDPR purposes.'

• Claim Form then sent to address they had on file 8th April 2022 (four years after I'd moved)
• Say that it is my obligation to ensure my details are up to date with the DVLA, and Claimant cannot be prejudiced for my failure to do so
• Claimant avers that Claim Form was properly served, as had no reason to suspect the address was no longer an address that I lived at
• On the basis liability is not in dispute (as I paid) have asked that, should court set judgement aside, there be no order as to Costs

Obviously, the bit that is new is that they say they tried to trace me via Experian, and then sent a new letter out to a different address. They haven't put what that address was, or what date the letter was sent, though suffice to say I didn't get it.

I am e-mailing Gladstones now to ask if they can provide that information. Will also put a SAR in (had only put one in with parking operator before).

Up until I received this, my plan was to submit a supplementary Witness Statement and bundle including:

• Redacted version of my credit record showing when I moved house, and that I was on the electoral roll at new properties
• E-mail from local council showing I have registered on the electoral roll at current property (not currently showing on my credit record because hasn't been updated yet)
• Record of the sale of the car, showing that I sold the car in 2018, two years before they got the file, so DVLA would have been made aware at that time
• Relevant extracts of the BPA code of conduct, showing they need to try to trace before they send out the claim form. I just don't see how they could have done this. If they said they sent me a letter to an 'alternative address' after receiving no response from a Letter Before Claim, there's no way I would have ignored it. So either they sent it to another incorrect address, or it didn't arrive. 

Am I missing anything? I don't like curveballs...

Coupon-mad

You are nailing it! The SAR should show the Experian search and both LBCs.

EpsomJim

Hi all,

So, no response from either the e-mail I sent to solicitor's contact or my SAR. 

However, they have sent a bundle to the court today, which I thought I was responsible for doing.

Question - I have been preparing a supplementary witness statement with some additional evidence. I was holding off sending it until tomorrow, to give them maximum time to respond to SAR (and to make the point that they have not done so in my WS).

Can I still submit this today, even after they have sent their bundle to the court? I'm assuming so, and will post here shortly in case there are any views on the new WS.