CCBC Claim Form recieved

bankrupt_2018

Want to open up here with some praise for what you folks are doing here.

Overview & background:

Received an initial letter from UKPC LTD at some point in Oct/Nov 2019 

Responded by complaining via an online portal to either the retail site or UKPC

Nothing else received until Jan 2023 with a Letter of Claim from DCB Legal

Ignored this totally (don't ask) 

Received Court Claim letter dated 20/02/2023 today and landed myself on here

Basically, my wife parked in a retail car park for more than the allowed 3 hours. Was unaware of the 3 hours until she visited mothercare with our children and was informed by staff of the fact she was entitled to stay longer as she was a customer in the above fashion. Visited a couple of stores and left the scene of her (later alleged) crime. Once the first letter landed she submitted evidence & explanations and thought nothing else of it. Until now obviously. 

Further points:

The person at mothercare did not advise correctly that there was a process to follow in order to be entitled to remain over 3 hours. 

Mothercare has subsequently gone out of business. 

We at present can only find one receipt from that day for that retail site (working on this) 

If this was me I would fight tooth and nail and turn up at court just on principle alone. My wife is nervous and just wants it gone (I understand this as she is different from me - anxiety etc). 

Any initial thoughts out there? 

Going to trawl old photo files and email inboxes over the weekend & get the AOS & SAR items looked into. There is a 14 day deadline on the CC letter - I need my defence in by that date or does the AOS land me the 30 day extension? 

Current bill stands at £293 (£208 owed, £35 Court fee, £50 legal reps fee). 

Willing to work nights on this and have experience with WS, courts and case laws (all good I promise) - let me know if its going to be worth prepping the wife for court...

KeithP

bankrupt_2018 said:

Received Court Claim letter dated 20/02/2023 today

If this was me I would fight tooth and nail and turn up at court just on principle alone. My wife is nervous and just wants it gone...

There is a 14 day deadline on the CC letter - I need my defence in by that date or does the AOS land me the 30 day extension?

...let me know if its going to be worth prepping the wife for court...

A phrase like "I need my defence in..." worries me.
It is important to point out that it is the named Defendant that needs to defend themself. Of course you can help, indeed do most of the work if you wish, but everything must be done in the name of the named Defendant.

In the unlikely event that it comes to a court hearing, then the Defendant must attend but you can speak on her behalf if that's what the Defendant wants. Have a read of The Lay Representatives (Rights of Audience) Order 1999.

With a Claim Issue Date of 20th February, you have until Monday 13th March to file an Acknowledgment of Service.  Do not file an Acknowledgment of Service before 25th February, but otherwise there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an Acknowledgment of Service, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 27th March 2023 to file your Defence.

That's over four weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service guidance.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that 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'.

Everywhere I have written 'you' or 'your' I do of course mean the named Defendant.

Coupon-mad

There won't be a hearing, so your wife won't need to do anything (as long as you write all her stuff for her as per our advice - in her name of course).

Your case will be on @Umkomaas' thread about DCBLegal discontinuations before you know it (later this year).  No hearing.  No debt.  No worries.

bankrupt_2018

Thanks both - Keith the 'my defence' is purely down to the fact I'll be handling all the adminy bits & and fully aware the wife is the defendant. Like I alluded to previously she would happily pay & move on but I feel this is worth pursuing for reasons beyond my household. I have another 'parking fine' to tackle at a later date (a dessert if you will) where the wife is the keeper, but is not the driver, that I need to pick up too (currently at CST Law inflated request). Actually excited by the fact the RoA indicates I can attend & borderline rep in the seemingly unlikely event it gets to court. I'll do my best to be un-transient but got a 5 & 7 that distract me. 

bankrupt_2018

FYI - the Newbie7802 and Philpow recent threads here are very aligned to mine. Crown Point Retail Park Leeds...seems strange. 

bankrupt_2018

Update on this one:

AOS completed on 04/03/2023. 

Wife found receipt from the Kidzone company operating inside Mothercare which shows she was entitled to additional parking time. This was previously submitted at complaint stage.

Going to start on defence tonight or tomorrow. 

Coupon-mad

It will take you half an hour.  Use the defence posted by @Johny86 with the special added paras 4-11 (specific to DCBLegal cases) and once you've added your own paras 2 & 3 to that, you are done!

bankrupt_2018

Just putting my defence together and have used the template edited in March 2022. My defence at para 3 looks like this:

The defendant freely admits that they attended the Crown Point Shopping Park on 09/10/2019 in her Vauxhall Astra licence plate XXXXX. The defendant visited the aforementioned retail site to visit a number of shops including, but not limited to, Next and Mothercare. Whilst visiting Mothercare, the defendant visited a children’s soft play on the first floor of Mothercare that was run by a third party company called ‘Eddie Cats’[1]. The team responsible for running the children’s soft play centre within Mothercare advised the defendant that she permitted to stay beyond the 3 hour parking limit in place at Crown Point Shopping Park simply by virtue of being a paid customer of their facility. The defendant was advised of no further process requirements in respect of exceeding the 3 hour parking limit in place at Crown Point Shopping Centre. As such, the defendant was aghast when at a later date a parking charge letter was received through the post. The defendant immediately gathered together evidence in the form of receipts and submitted this via a complaint’s portal. The defendant received no response and thought nothing of this until over 3 years later when she received ‘Letter of Claim’ via DCB Legal. The defendant’s circumstances meant that by such time as she had mentally acknowledged the ’Letter of Claim’ the situation had escalated to the ‘Claim Form’ stage. It is noted that since receiving the Claim Form, the defendant has tried to contact both the management of Crown Point Shopping Park and the management of Eddie Catz soft play centres to discuss the particulars of this case to no avail. Additionally, the claimant is still in possession of evidence relating to her visit to Crown Point Shopping Park and will present this when required.

 Is this too lengthy and do the particulars of the defence render any aspects of the template moot? 

KeithP

That reads more like a Witness Statement.

A Defence is made up of legal argument and most of that is already written for you. Just needs a little customisation.

Have you read the template Defence?

Have you looked at any other Defences? This forum is awash with Defences.

Last Wednesday - in her post immediately before your latest post - @Coupon-mad gave you a pointer to one good example.

bankrupt_2018

Thanks @KeithP - the post you refer to confused me - do I replace paras 4-11 of the March 2022 template with paras 4-11 of Johny86's defence? Or merge the two? Not sure how to make my para 3 more succinct - do cut the waffle and retain the headline facts? 

Coupon-mad

Just putting my defence together and have used the template edited in March 2022.

Not the one with the extra DCB Legal-specific paragraphs 4-11 that I specially suggested?

I'd remove this, which isn't needed:

"The defendant’s circumstances meant that by such time as she had mentally acknowledged the ’Letter of Claim’ the situation had escalated to the ‘Claim Form’ stage. It is noted that since receiving the Claim Form, the defendant has tried to contact both the management of Crown Point Shopping Park and the management of Eddie Catz soft play centres to discuss the particulars of this case to no avail. Additionally, the claimant is still in possession of evidence relating to her visit to Crown Point Shopping Park and will present this when required."