County Court Claim from Watford in Aug 19 - need to file a defence TODAY!

YankeeBrit

Well done. If I were you, I'd go and buy a lottery ticket. 

Coupon-mad

ripofflondon said:

Guess what - I WON!

...attending the court in person today, only to find out that Gladstones had previously notified the court they would not be attending in person but hadn't informed me of this, the action was struck out under Civil Procedure Rule 27.9 (1) with c. £70 for travel and loss of earnings awarded in my favour. 

So I had the pleasure of sending Gladstones the following email:  

Dear Ms P** 

You will hear this from from the court in due course, but I wanted to be the first to inform you: following my attending the court in person today, only to find out that you had previously notified the court you would not be attending in person but hadn't informed me of this, the action was struck out under Civil Procedure Rule 27.9 (1) with travel and loss of earnings awarded in my favour. 

I look forward to receiving my costs in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Mark I**

----------  court report. ----------

When I arrived, the usher first said the other side hadn't arrived and I thought 'OK, they're running late'.   Then 2 mins later she came back and said 'they've advised the court they won't be attending'.  I was shocked to hear this and she said 'oh, it's quite common with these private parking companies'.  

I explained to the judge that I wasn't legally trained and didn't realise until too late about the WS.  He homed in in great detail on the correspondence I'd had (and not had) from Gladstones and the issue of how they'd told the court they wouldn't be attending in person but hadn't told me, wanting to see the emails on my phone and it was clear that because of this alone he was going to strike the action out.  

I was one of the lucky ones in that Gladstones shot themselves in the foot and obviously not everyone will be this lucky, so thinking that it might be of use to those of you who are still facing upcoming hearings I did ask the judge 'how would it have gone if it had gone to a substantive hearing on the merits?' and he wouldn't be drawn on this except to say "I would have asked you in a lot more detail about the mention in your Defence of how you'd been challenged the week before and had been allowed to park for 5 mins when you said you were just going to the shop".  

Thanks again to all of you who helped.   

Yay!  I had my fingers crossed they wouldn't turn up.  Well done!!

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

ripofflondon

Thanks again Coupon.  Your post of yesterday meant I would have had some ammunition had they either turned up or not turned up but HAD informed me they not were doing so.  Whether I would have won is another matter, but am glad you made me aware me of that DHLUHC's Draft Impact Assessment having only been published on Sunday

milkybk

If you’re ever in this situation again please ensure you’re better prepared, the running theme in this thread was that you hadn’t given it enough attention etc. Can’t take any chances, especially when it’s important people keep beating these crooks. There’s a huge amount of info on here that a lot of people spend time producing to help others, the least people can do is use it properly.

Congratulations though, I’m glad you won.

ripofflondon

Agreed, Milkybk (re the lack of preparation)
Also agree re the importance of beating them and that's why I tried to get a steer from the judge on how it would have gone had they not fallen at the 1st hurdle so I could report back to you all.  

It's funny, actually - years ago I brought an ET case (which I won) but I'd been advised by my lawyers I probably wouldn't win on some of the points I'd raised.  However I still insisted on including these points and I'm glad I did, for when the Tribunal turned them down it didn't just say 'you've lost' but gave detailed reasons why.  These were able to be reverse-engineered into a detailed 'how to win in the future' guide.  

ripofflondon

Something else occurs after chatting to my partner last night which I think would be useful to forum members.  This is that, when it came to the issue of costs, the judge would have been quite happy to grant me more than the amount I had claimed for travelling and loss of earnings.  

Without thinking, I had answered truthfully that I had taken the bus in both directions so that was £1.75 × 2, plus I worked out my hourly rate in my job and we came up with the figure of £70 for the half a day of annual leave that I had to take to attend this hearing.  He said a couple of times "is there anything else you want to ask me for?" and having been put completely on the spot I couldn't really think of very much apart from things like dry cleaning of my suit or something like that. 

But the very strong vibe I got from him was that if, for eg, I had told him I had travelled to/from the hearing by taxi, and that I'd had to take a whole day and not half a day off work, he would have accepted it without questioning it.  I did mention aside that I'd had to spend at least a day researching this issue on the internet, which is true, but he said he couldn't compensate me for that.  

Of course, having said I'd travelled by bus and took 1/2 a day of leave, I couldn't then unsay that when I found out I could have got away with more - so the moral of what I'm trying to say, in essence, is 'go in high and let them challenge it' rather than what I did: go in low and then find I could have asked for more.  

If my little 2-penno'th gives other forum members a tiny bit of extra intelligence then my mission has not been in vain. If it's OK for these cowboy parking firms to add on unspecified admin costs then it's OK for us poor defendants to do the same!

ripofflondon

The judge said that his order would require Gladstones to pay my costs within 14 days and a few ppl have asked me 'what happens if they don't pay up?'  

So that is an interesting question, and if anyone else has had experience of this then pls feel free to share.  

Umkomaas

ripofflondon said:

The judge said that his order would require Gladstones to pay my costs within 14 days and a few ppl have asked me 'what happens if they don't pay up?'  

So that is an interesting question, and if anyone else has had experience of this then pls feel free to share.  

Do you think a regulated solicitor would ignore/disregard/refuse to comply with a court order?  We occasionally hear of  a slowness to pay, but never a case of not paying. A reminder letter is enough of a stimulus if there is any tardiness. 

ripofflondon

Umkomaas said:

Do you think a regulated solicitor would ignore/disregard/refuse to comply with a court order?  We occasionally hear of  a slowness to pay, but never a case of not paying. A reminder letter is enough of a stimulus if there is any tardiness. 

I hear what you say but, given the general grubby disingenuousness / ambulance-chasing 'where-there's-blame-there's-a-claim' sordidity of the whole private parking industry, it wouldn't have surprised me if these were the sorts of solicitors who WOULD do something like that.  

Umkomaas

ripofflondon said:

Umkomaas said:

Do you think a regulated solicitor would ignore/disregard/refuse to comply with a court order?  We occasionally hear of  a slowness to pay, but never a case of not paying. A reminder letter is enough of a stimulus if there is any tardiness. 

I hear what you say but, given the general grubby disingenuousness / ambulance-chasing 'where-there's-blame-there's-a-claim' sordidity of the whole private parking industry, it wouldn't have surprised me if these were the sorts of solicitors who WOULD do something like that.  

Tell us if they do.