Claim form for UK Parking Control Limited / DCB Legal

pkfic

Hi folks,

Thanks for the excellent resources in this forums.

I have received my claim form but I am travelling abroad with work for the next two weeks and will not have the capacity to deal with the acceptance while away so I have sent it today (appreciate the advice to delay is to extend the time available and don't intend leaving things to the last minute).

Here is what I have drafted in my defence:

2. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question and driver.

3. The defendant arranged to meet with a friend for lunch at Costa Coffee for the first time since the start of the covid-19 pandemic on 8th January at 1pm. 

The defendant arrived at the car park at 1243hrs. The friend was delayed in arriving due to having mistaken the location and arrived at a different Costa Coffee shop, therefore they did not arrive at the expected location until approximately 1315.

The defendant and friend ordered their lunch, which took some time as the cafe was very busy. The defendant and friend left the cafe at approximately 1520hrs and the defendant responded to messages that had been received on their mobile phone before leaving the car park at 1527hrs.

The defendant was not aware of the maximum time limit to park in the car park being 2 hours.

There are other car parks on the same industrial estate (eg my gym) which have a limit of 4 hours - I did not even think that this car park might be as short as 2 hours and honestly it did not even dawn on me that it was time limited. It serves Costa plus a bunch of other large shops (sofa sellers etc). The first sign informing you is right as you swing into the car park off the dual carriageway around a sharp bend, and others are at the ends of rows - I was not parked in a row but facing out onto the road.

Also I am a regular customer at the Costa in question as it is my local. They had invited me to redeem a free coffee, which is why we went there in the first place! Not sure whether to add that either.

Appreciate any help that folks might be able to provide!

KeithP

If you have already filed your Defence, what exactly are you looking for here?

pkfic

I have not yet filed the defence - it said in the instructions to follow the template and personalise for your needs, then share if you would like folks to review.

I have submitted the AOS. Sorry if that was not clear enough and thanks for taking the time to respond.

KeithP

OK, but your first sentence said "I have sent it today".
I guess I misunderstood.

Please tell us the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form.

pkfic

28th October 2022.

KeithP

pkfic said:

28th October 2022.

As you know, your Acknowledgment of Service was filed a little earlier than the optimum date but you've only lost two days.

With a Claim Issue Date of 28th October, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service on 31st October, you have until 4pm on Monday 28th November 2022 to file your Defence.

That's over four weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence and it is good to see you are not leaving it to the last minute.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Don't miss the deadline for filing a Defence.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. Once an Acknowledgment of Service has been filed, the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

Le_Kirk

That defence reads more like a witness statement.

A defence is a series of short punchy legal/technical arguments in the third person.  The arguments should be used to refute what is claimed in the POC.  Using the defence template, paragraph #1 is not edited, paragraph #2 states whether you are keeper and NOT the driver or keeper AND driver.  Paragraph #3 is used to set the scene for the judge and explain that you deny not paying/overstaying/not displaying/not having a permit/not having a blue badge (or whatever the POC states) and, provided you have opened the door with those arguments, you can tell the whole story in the narrative that forms the witness statement along with the evidence that backs up the defence.  Make sure that you include a section (small) on how abysmal the signage was.  For your WS you will need photos of the signage as it was on the day (Google street view often helps here).  Just write section 3 in your own words and one of the regulars will critique it for you; resist the temptation to write War & Peace.

pkfic

Thanks @KeithP - I have read the guidance and I have drafted the defence which I have shared in the first post to get feedback on. Maybe I missed something but I think I have done what you explain?

Thanks @Le_Kirk - so I should cut this down to just state that I did not recall seeing the signage and leave everything else out of it? I can't use the Google Maps as evidence, as when you look it only has a very recent image and a very old (several years previous) image. The old one did not have the signs up, the new one does. They provided me with a map of all the sign locations in the car park when I submitted the SAR.

Umkomaas

They provided me with a map of all the sign locations in the car park when I submitted the SAR.

Do you have your own photos of the distribution of the signage around the car park?  If so, do they match what UKPC say in their map?  If there is discrepancy, that can be a very strong point at court, on which some motorists have succeeded. 

If you haven't got your own, and you're local, go along to the car park, check out the sign distribution against the UKPC map, and especially if there's a difference, map it out yourself and take your own photos, which will need to show date stamps if they are to be produced for evidence (there is a method for showing the date stamp - can be done after taking the photos, not necessarily before, as I understand it - you should check it out with Google for your phone/camera). 

Le_Kirk

The judge will not be interested (at defence stage) about the issues with your friend being late, it being your first trip out since Covid or how long it took to get your lunch prepared.  They will be interested in the lack of signage (if it had been prominent you would have seen it) and how different it was (as you discovered when you did research AFTER having received the claim) to other retail outlets in the same area. @Umkomaas makes good points about signage which you can use in your WS provided you have opened the door in your defence by making a point of it.

pkfic

Umkomaas said:

They provided me with a map of all the sign locations in the car park when I submitted the SAR.

Do you have your own photos of the distribution of the signage around the car park?  If so, do they match what UKPC say in their map?  If there is discrepancy, that can be a very strong point at court, on which some motorists have succeeded. 

No, but I will see if I can get some. When do they need to be submitted, with the defence statement presumably? If so that shouldn't be a problem. I'll try to see if I can get them at roughly the same time / weather as the day I visited as it was dark and wet at the time.

I will also take some pics of other car parks as well to show the difference in durations.

Thanks for the suggestions, will also work on the defence statement and make it more succinct .. first time doing this so appreciate the nudges in the right direction