County Court PCN

Whodoneitandwhen

To anyone who can help/share their experience,

I have used this board on a number of occasions to mount successful defences of inappropriate private parking fines often from my place of work. I have however got a query from a recent parking fine that is a little unusual.

It is from a company called E S Parking Enforcement LTD. It has rapidly progressed to the stage of county court judgement in the space of around 6 months.
It is unusual in the sense that the car was not parked. The car was stopped on double yellows while loading/unloading. Someone remained in the vehicle at all times. This was a public road. A letter was received in the post with a picture of the vehicle on the double yellows with a request to pay an escalated fine. This was followed with a rather unusual and threatening text message. 

This has escalated to CCJ now and the plan is to defend. Has anyone experienced something similar? 

Any advice further information required please ask

Boat_to_Bolivia

Do you mean you have a County Court Claim?

If so what is the issue date please and the name of the solicitors.

B789

Are you sure it was a "public road"? An unregulated private parking company cannot issue "fines". They also cannot issue parking charges for parking events on "public roads". Was the road on private land such as an estate?

Please count the number of times the word "fine" appears on any paperwork you've received from ESPEL. Perhaps you are referring to a speculative invoice for an alleged breach of contract from them.

Has your "CCJ" been paid? Or do you mean County Court Claim? Are ESPEL the claimant? If so, arethey representing themselves or are they being represented by a firm of solicitors?

Stopping to load or unload is not prohibited on double yellow lines on a public highway as long as there are no assocoates "tick" marks on the kerb. If it was double yellow lines on private land they could mean anything the landowner wants. For example, they could mean anyone observed picking their nose whilst adjacent to the double yellow lines is liable to a charge.

Your defence will use one of the templates on here. There are several similar cases where tickets have been issued for stopping on double yellow lines so a search of the forum should reveal those.

Mouse007

Please tell us exactly where these double yellow lines are (street name, postcode) so we can have a look for you.

We've had PPCs issuing PCNs on public roads before.

Coupon-mad

You don't have a CCJ. It's a claim. Not unusual. What's the Claim Form date of issue?

Whodoneitandwhen

Thank you for the replies. Apologies it is a claim for dated 21st May, I have acknowledged the claim and therefore have the 28 days to produce a defence. The solicitors are Gladstones. 

The street is Water street manchester M3 4BF. I have just looked on street views and I do see there are yellow ticks on the curb. Does this mean they have a case?

Le_Kirk

Did you mean there are NO kerb blips?  I have looked on Street View and, apart from some of the yellow lines being faded and the car park looking a bit unsavoury, I can see no kerb markings.  Did you park IN or OUTSIDE the car park?

Coupon-mad

"curb" = horrible Americanism. It's a kerb.

I say this because stuff like that will get a pedantic Judge's back up.

Of course they don't have a case.  Have you read the NEWBIES thread and the Template defence?  Easy to defend.

Plus ... just cast your eye down the parking forum first pages and you'll notice that almost every thread is about defending court claims just like this?

We do this every day.  Read a dozen other threads and don't only stay stuck on yours.

KeithP

Whodoneitandwhen said:

...it is a claim for dated 21st May.

 Are you telling us that you have a Claim Form with an Issue Date of 21st May?

I am surprised.
21st May was a Sunday.
I have never seen a County Court Claim issued on a Sunday before.

Please confirm the Issue Date on your Claim Form and can you please tell us the date when you filed an Acknowledgment of Service.

Whodoneitandwhen

Apologies for the spelling errors. The fine is stopping in an area where stopping was apparently prohibited. I pulled up onto the kerb briefly and they took a photo of the car doing so. I didn't park in any car park. I have read the newbies thread and as I've mentioned I have defended car park type tickets in the past. My issue on this occasion is there is no car park but simple a kerb which has double yellow lines on it. 

Coupon-mad

It's not a fine.

There are loads of 'no stopping' roadway defence cases on here to learn from. Just search the forum for those keywords and only look at RECENT POSTS by changing 'best match' default search to 'newest'.