NCP Claim - Gatwick Drop off PCN

PiGar

Hello,

I hope you can help me. I have received a Claim from from the County court regarding a PCN. I had been ignoring the letters, as I was told they wouldn't end up in a claim, and I was shocked to receive it on the 23rd of December. I have been in such hock and anxiety I only managed to fully review the letter in the last two days, also when I found your forum. I have been reading a lot of the posts. My issue is: I did go through the Drop off, wasn't aware the charge had been introduced and wasn't careful enough to look into how to pay for it, then a couple of weeks later I got the £120 fine. As I said, I was told to ignore it (I had intended to pay it then), and all the BWLegal letters that kept arriving (I have most of them) have been really distressing. Now with the claim, I find I've probably gone beyond the time when I should have responded. Is paying the only way? I find this is abusive and disproportionate to the contravention, and feel it's not right to pay it (it feels like a well organised business at the expense of people forgetting to pay immediately), but it's getting to a point where I may not see another way out.

Your advise will be greatly appreciated. I do appreciate it's been a long time, but I do have personal challenges and go into overwhelm and paralysis with this kind of matter, so I will be grateful for your comments.

Thanks and best regards,

PG

Coupon-mad

Terrible advice from whoever told you to ignore that PCN at the time it first arrived (we would not have told you to do that).  You would have killed it with ONE EMAIL at the time, had you come here in time.  Such an easy one to have appealed and quashed in days.  At the time of the PCN.

Of course you don't pay it just because you have a court claim to defend.  But it worries me you don't seem to have read what to do - second post of the NEWBIES thread - despite saying you came here before Xmas.  

What's the date of issue, top right of the claim?

When did you do the AOS online as the NEWBIES thread tells you to do?

Fruitcake

It is not a fine.

I hope whoever gave you the dreadful advice to ignore this is going to help foot the bill if you lose. The advice to ignore a PCN has not been given here since the law changed in 2012.

Plan A is always for the keeper to complain to the landowner and their MP.

The the driver go through the drop-off area without stopping or dropping off?

What is the issue date on the court claim?
Have you completed the AoS yet? If so, upon what date did you submit it?

Have you read the guide to court written by bargepole that you will find in the sticky Announcement for NEWBIES?

Have you read the template defence sticky Announcement? That is what you should base your defence upon.

Read other threads about NCP and the Gatwick Drop-Off entrapment zone.

PiGar

Coupon-mad said:

Terrible advice from whoever told you to ignore that PCN at the time it first arrived (we would not have told you to do that).  You would have killed it with ONE EMAIL at the time, had you come here in time.  Such an easy one to have appealed and quashed in days.  At the time of the PCN.

Of course you don't pay it just because you have a court claim to defend.  But it worries me you don't seem to have read what to do - second post of the NEWBIES thread - despite saying you came here before Xmas.  

What's the date of issue, top right of the claim?

When did you do the AOS online as the NEWBIES thread tells you to do?

Hi, 

So i only found you two days ago. I wish i had done the search before Christmas,  but went through a rollercoaster and wasn't even able to properly read the claim letter until last weekend. 

Issue date is 19th of December,  so I guess I've added another offence bt bot responding in time in some way?

The person who suggested not paying also suggested other ways to deal with it, but I wasn't sure which was best, snd in the end, I avoided facing it. I know, you may see this all the time.  

I didn't submit an AoS and I did try to understand what that is,  will go back to Newbies post and try to find it. However, i thought I might be too late for that, if it's sone sort of appeal? 

Thanks,

PG

PiGar

Fruitcake said:

It is not a fine.

I hope whoever gave you the dreadful advice to ignore this is going to help foot the bill if you lose. The advice to ignore a PCN has not been given here since the law changed in 2012.

Plan A is always for the keeper to complain to the landowner and their MP.

The the driver go through the drop-off area without stopping or dropping off?

What is the issue date on the court claim?
Have you completed the AoS yet? If so, upon what date did you submit it?

Have you read the guide to court written by bargepole that you will find in the sticky Announcement for NEWBIES?

Have you read the template defence sticky Announcement? That is what you should base your defence upon.

Read other threads about NCP and the Gatwick Drop-Off entrapment zone.

In this case,  there was a dropping off.
Issue date 19th Dec (arrived on 22nd or 23rd).

Will look up the court guide. 
I think I may have seen the template defence, but I'll look again. I have read a few other posts for the Gatwick drop off, inclyding a mention of it bring under scrutiny. I admire you helping people fight this. Wish I had come to this point in my process much sooner...Concentration levels aren't always with me,  I'm trying my best, so I appreciate your patience. 

Thanks, 

PG

Coupon-mad

Forget the AOS (too late).  Go straight to defence and NOT by logging in on MCOL using the password on the claim.

Nope!

Just put in your defence by email as an electronically signed & dated PDF attachment tonight.

Should take you half an hour to adapt the Template Defence. Top of the forum. Dead easy.

KeithP

PiGar said:

Coupon-mad said:

Terrible advice from whoever told you to ignore that PCN at the time it first arrived (we would not have told you to do that).  You would have killed it with ONE EMAIL at the time, had you come here in time.  Such an easy one to have appealed and quashed in days.  At the time of the PCN.

Of course you don't pay it just because you have a court claim to defend.  But it worries me you don't seem to have read what to do - second post of the NEWBIES thread - despite saying you came here before Xmas.  

What's the date of issue, top right of the claim?

When did you do the AOS online as the NEWBIES thread tells you to do?

Issue date is 19th of December...

With a Claim Issue Date of 19th December, you had until Monday 8th January 2023 to file an Acknowledgment of Service but you didn't do that.
That means that your Defence filing deadline became 4pm on Monday 8th January 2023.

Since 4pm on Monday 8th January the Claimant has been free to seek a Default Judgment against you.

If they seek and get that Judgment before you have filed a Defence, then they win the race - it's game over - you lose.

Check your MCOL Claim History to see if there is a Judgment against you. 
If there is, then you can ignore the rest of this post.

On the other hand if you file a Defence before the Claimant actually seeks and gets that Default Judgment, then you win this heat and go through to the next round and I suggest you aim to file a Defence before 8am tomorrow.

The good news is that whatever the Claimant may do, nothing untoward will happen overnight.

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

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. From now on the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

PiGar

KeithP said:

PiGar said:

Coupon-mad said:

Terrible advice from whoever told you to ignore that PCN at the time it first arrived (we would not have told you to do that).  You would have killed it with ONE EMAIL at the time, had you come here in time.  Such an easy one to have appealed and quashed in days.  At the time of the PCN.

Of course you don't pay it just because you have a court claim to defend.  But it worries me you don't seem to have read what to do - second post of the NEWBIES thread - despite saying you came here before Xmas.  

What's the date of issue, top right of the claim?

When did you do the AOS online as the NEWBIES thread tells you to do?

Issue date is 19th of December...

With a Claim Issue Date of 19th December, you had until Monday 8th January 2023 to file an Acknowledgment of Service but you didn't do that.
That means that your Defence filing deadline became 4pm on Monday 8th January 2023.

Since 4pm on Monday 8th January the Claimant has been free to seek a Default Judgment against you.

If they seek and get that Judgment before you have filed a Defence, then they win the race - it's game over - you lose.

Check your MCOL Claim History to see if there is a Judgment against you. 
If there is, then you can ignore the rest of this post.

On the other hand if you file a Defence before the Claimant actually seeks and gets that Default Judgment, then you win this heat and go through to the next round and I suggest you aim to file a Defence before 8am tomorrow.

The good news is that whatever the Claimant may do, nothing untoward will happen overnight.

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

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. From now on the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

I guess I need to register to check the status on MCOL. It's a bit scary to have this linked to my Government Gateway ID. May try to send the defence email and take my chances.... Knackered just now, but got out of bed and hope to be able to do this...

Thanks for the pointers...

Coupon-mad said:

Forget the AOS (too late).  Go straight to defence and NOT by logging in on MCOL using the password on the claim.

Nope!

Just put in your defence by email as an electronically signed & dated PDF attachment tonight.

Should take you half an hour to adapt the Template Defence. Top of the forum. Dead easy.

Also, just to confirm that I need all 26 points in the template? With #2 and #3 adapted to my case details..?

PG

Coupon-mad

Yes indeedy.

Don't waste time tonight checking status on MCOL and certainly don't accidentally type anything as a defence there!

You can check MCOL status AFTER emailing the defence and getting an auto-acknowledgement.  Your priority is the defence email.

KeithP

PiGar said:

Also, just to confirm that I need all 26 points in the template? With #2 and #3 adapted to my case details..?

Yes.           

PiGar

That's now sent. Alea Jacta est. We see what comes next, but I'll need to make sure to do this at more sociable hours. I certainly am grateful for all of your kind help so far.