I want to fight 2 get my CCJ set aside (Thanks to you hero's giving me confidence that its possible)

Jazzagi81

Fruitcake said:

You have quoted from the BPA CoP. I thought you were up against an IPC member and therefore should have used the IPC CoP as previously advised by Coupon-mad.

Oh noooo I tried so hard to get this right, but I found it all so confusing. They have logo's for both on their website... 

Jazzagi81

@Coupon-mad Coincidentally, I just got an email with their witness statement! I'll redact personal info and paste below...

INTRODUCTION

1. I am a Legal Assistant, in the employment of XXX (hereinafter referred to as my ‘Firm’) based at their offices, at the address stated above.

2. My Firm are instructed by the aforementioned Claimant, in relation to this claim. I have conduct of this action, subject to the supervision of my Principle. The matters to which I refer are within my own knowledge, or based on information provided to me by my client within the course of my instruction, save where expressly stated to the contrary, and are true to the best of my knowledge, information and belief. I am duly authorised by the Claimant to make this statement on its behalf.

3. The Defendant has made an application to set aside the Judgment in default obtained on the 9th January 2023 in relation to this claim. 

4. The Defendant prays in aid of the application:

i. That they were not living at the address where the Claim Form was served, at the time that proceedings were issued.

5. The Claimant notes that the Defendant has made payment of the Judgment for this Claim in full, and therefore liability for this Claim is not in dispute.

6. It is not the Claimant’s intention to actively participate in the Defendant’s application to set the Judgment aside by attending the hearing or instructing an advocate as this will involve additional costs, costs which it would be unfair to expect the Claimant to meet, given that they have acted both reasonably and proportionately to date and have complied with the pre-action protocol and CPR in relation to the service of the Claim Form. It is also the Claimants position that any costs associated with making the application, as far as the Defendant is concerned, should be met by them.

7. As a result, the Claimant leaves the decision as to whether the Judgment ought to be set aside to the discretion of the Honourable Court. For the avoidance of doubt however, the Claimant has provided instructions to my Firm to confirm the background of the Claim. This is provided to the Court to demonstrate the Claimant opposing the award of any potential costs that may be sought by the Defendant, as the Claimant’s Claim was issued in full compliance with the CPR.

8. By way of background, due to the Parking Charge Notice (hereinafter referred to as ‘PCN’ as appropriate) to which this claim relates remaining unpaid, the Claimant referred the matter to my Firm for the purposes of recovery on or around the 11th August 2022.

9. The case management system operated by my Firm confirms that acting in accordance with the clients instructions a ‘Letter Before Claim.’ was sent to the Defendant at XXX; this being the address supplied by the DVLA as being the address of the Defendant named herein at the time of the contravention.

10. When no response was received to that correspondence my Firm carried out a trace via UK Search, 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.

11. The Trace results did reveal a possible alternative address for the Defendant. 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.

12. My Firm therefore submitted a claim to the County Court Business Centre on the 7th December 2022. The address provided for service of the Claim Form was XXX, this being the usual or last known residence of the Defendant for the purposes of CPR 6.9.

13. The Defendant alleges that they were unable to respond to the claim as they did not receive the Court papers. Notices were served at the address provided by the DVLA. It is the Defendant’s obligation to ensure their details are correct and up to date with the DVLA and the Claimant cannot be prejudiced for their failure to do so. Further, the Claim Form was served on the Defendant at their last known place of residence pursuant to CPR 6.9.

14. The Claimant avers that we acted accordingly based on the information we had at the time proceedings were issued, having no reason to suspect the address was no longer an address at which the Defendant did reside and therefore not being required to take additional steps to ascertain the current address of the Defendant in accordance with CPR 6.9(3).

15. The Claimant therefore submits that the Claim Form can be deemed to be properly served.

16. On the basis liability is not in dispute owing to the Defendant’s payment, should the Honourable Court elect to exercise its discretion to set the Judgment aside, the Claimant would request the following Order be made:

a. The judgment entered on the 9th January 2023 be and is hereby set aside; and

b. There be no Order as to Costs.

Jazzagi81

Note, I have not received anything at all from either the solicitor or the parking company at my current address, so i don't know what they are referring to in point 11. And, despite requests I also haven't received any proof of the original parking event. 

Coupon-mad

Jazzagi81 said:

Fruitcake said:

You have quoted from the BPA CoP. I thought you were up against an IPC member and therefore should have used the IPC CoP as previously advised by Coupon-mad.

Oh noooo I tried so hard to get this right, but I found it all so confusing. They have logo's for both on their website... 

Not relevant. It's the roundel that shows the AOS.

Notice that in this template statement, they SAY they did a trace and they SAY they sent a letter to your new address but this is just hearsay because they haven't attached that evidence, which would have been easy to do.

Also why then lazily revert back to an old address that was NEVER confirmed as 'the last known residence'?  DVLA vehicle addresses are not only considered unreliable in up to a third of cases but the DVLA certainly don't give the car's address out as a 'last known residence' for anyone. 

Boat_to_Bolivia

@Jazzagi81 your post @12pm today has your name, address and case ref number visible

Jazzagi81

@Boat_to_Bolivia Thank you for the heads up! 

Jazzagi81

“Not relevant. It's the roundel that shows the AOS.”

what do you mean the roundel? Did I mess up here? Do I need to find a different CoP for the hearing?  @Coupon-mad

I’m still feeling pretty unprepared for the actual hearing, is there any advice on here at all for how I can prepare myself? I know they are saying that my paying the fine is admitting liability but I wasn’t even driving the vehicle, I just panicked and paid as soon as I found out as I was trying to do the right thing. (Which I’ll be forever annoyed with myself for!)  

I feel like my arguments aren’t very strong and all I can do now is hope and pray that I get a judge who understands how these companies work and takes pity on me. 

Coupon-mad

This (about not saying that a parking firm are in both the IPC and BPA) is already explained in the NEWBIES thread first Q&A.  In the very first post of the sticky.

This Claimant isn't subject to the BPA CoP.

Hearing tips and how to prepare is in the second post of the same sticky thread.

Jazzagi81

@Coupon-mad

ok, thank you, i'll go back and read those. Should/can I change my witness statement at this stage? 

Coupon-mad

You can't if already submitted.

You could send a short supplementary WS correcting it but to be honest the C already knows which CoP they have to abide by and knows you are wrong, so this won't be news to them!