Filing a defence following CCJ put aside. PCN dated March 2018. DCB legal!

skoobimum

Hi everyone, just looking for some advice/help that I can’t find the specific answer to in threads & also wanting to check my defence. I have read the sticky notes on forum & used the template Johny86 had provided with obvious changes to paragraph 3 to suit my own circumstances (which I realise is clunky & would love some help editing!) & also enquiring whether the specifics under the NTK/POFA are relevant in my case.

Brief history; 

I received a claim form from DCB legal on 18th Nov 2022 acting on behalf of claimant ‘Spring Parking’ & relating to a historic PCN issued on 02/03/2018 the reason being ‘Not displaying a valid pay & display ticket’. I followed protocol & filed an AOS on MCOL after about 8 days & then sent SAR to Spring Parking & Request for documents mentioned in a statement of case under CPR 31.14 to DCB legal & set about looking on forums & thinking about preparing my defence. 

I received the SAR pics quite quickly & upon studying I noticed that a parking ticket could just be seen on their photos sticking up from the blacked out portion on windscreen so this was basis of defence along with terrible signage (the car park is no longer managed by Spring parking & is now completely free for 2 hrs) but at the time it was free for 1st 2 hrs but you still had to get a ticket. I cannot obviously now get photos of original signage but the main council sign remains which states it is a free car park. 

I then received the ‘documents’ requested from DCB & noticed that the landowners agreement they had attached was dated 6months AFTER the alleged violation so was hoping to also use this in defence. However, in the meantime I received an email from DCB legal in early December 2022 saying that the ‘matter was on hold’ & no further action was needed to be taken by myself & they would contact me in due course. I therefore put the matter to the back of my mind & assumed it had been dropped or delayed, enjoyed the festive season & didn’t file my defence! 😳

Imagine my shock when early 2023 I received a notice of Judgement for Claimant (in default) & that unless I paid the highly inflated £316.84 I could expect bailiffs visits & a CCJ! 

I made a complaint to DCB & after some to-ing & fro-ing was found in my favour & upheld due to ‘administrative error’ & they therefore filed a judgement to be set aside. I have just received notification dated 12th June that this has been upheld & I am therefore back in the position of filing my defence. I couldn’t find the exact time frame for this but have assumed it is 14days plus 5days from date of judgement? Which means I need to file my defence quick smart!

Any help or advice will be much appreciated. I have attached images as supplied by claimant & DCB legal, is there anything I’ve missed or can add to defence? & any help on wording or what I can/cannot say..
thanks so much
skoobi 

Here is the top part of my defence (using jonny86template & then continuing using Coupon-mad’s template from Newbie post) 35 paragraphs in all!!

IN THE COUNTY COURT

Claim No.:  xxxxx

Between

SPRING PARKING LTD

(Claimant) 

- and -

XXXXX 

 (Defendant)

_________________

DEFENCE

1. The parking charges referred to in this claim did not arise from any agreement of terms. The charge and the claim was an unexpected shock. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all.  It is denied that any conduct by the driver was a breach of any prominent term and it is denied that this Claimant (understood to have a bare licence as managers) has standing to sue or form contracts in their own name. Liability is denied, whether or not the Claimant is claiming 'keeper liability', which is unclear from the Particulars.

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. It is admitted that on the material date the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle. However liability is denied. Due to the historical nature of the alleged claim, over 5 yrs having elapsed (02/03/2018) it is therefore not known or recalled who was driving on the date listed on the POC, especially because the vehicle had multiple drivers at that time.

3. The Driver was a patron at Bridge shopping centre and various signage, including the council erected initial & most visible sign advises that the parking is free for shoppers, the defendant would argue that the other signage is contradictory and confusing and that no contract was entered into that the defendant, as registered keeper, is liable for. Furthermore, the defendant would argue that a parking ticket can clearly be seen on the dashboard of the vehicle in question in the claimants own photographs & the fact that this has slipped down below the visible portion of the windscreen & could not be read from outside would be unknown to the driver upon exiting & could have been caused by the draft of the door closing eg.  Furthermore, the defendant would argue that the ‘contract’/landowner agreement between Spring Parking & Foden estates (the landowners at the relevant time) for them to ‘provide car park management services’ as requested by the defendant relating to documents mentioned in a statement of case under CPR 31.14 is wholly inadmissible & irrelevant given that it is dated 6 months after the ‘alleged’ violation & therefore bears no relevance in this case.

4. The Defendant avers that the Claimant failed to serve a Notice to Keeper compliant with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. Consequently, the claimant cannot transfer liability for this charge to the Defendant as keeper of the vehicle. 

5. The Particulars of Claim ('POC') appear to be in breach of CPR 16.4, 16PD3 and 16PD7, and fail to "state all facts necessary for the purpose of formulating a complete cause of action”. 

6. The Defendant is unable, on the basis of the POC, to understand with certainty what case is being pursued. 

7. The POC are entirely inadequate, in that they fail to particularise (a) the contractual term(s) relied upon; (b) the specifics of any alleged breach of contract; and (c) how the purported and unspecified 'damages' arose and the breakdown of the exaggerated quantum. 

8. The claim has been issued via Money Claims Online and, as a result, is subject to a character limit for the Particulars of Claim section of the Claim Form.  The fact that generic wording appears to have been applied has obstructed any semblance of clarity.  The Defendant trusts that the court will agree that a claim pleaded in such generic terms lacks the required details and requires proper particularisation in a detailed document within 14 days, per 16PD.3 

9. The guidance for completing Money Claims Online confirms this and clearly states: "If you do not have enough space to explain your claim online and you need to serve extra, more detailed particulars on the defendant, tick the box that appears after the statement 'you may also send detailed particulars direct to the defendant.'" 

10. No further particulars have been filed and to the Defendant's knowledge, no application asking the court service for more time to serve and/or relief from sanctions has been filed either. 

11. In view of it having been entirely within the Claimant's Solicitors' gift to properly plead the claim at the outset and the claim being for a sum, well within the small claims limit, such that the Defendant considers it disproportionate and at odds with the overriding objective (in the context of a failure by the Claimant to properly comply with rules and practice directions) for a Judge to throw the erring Claimant a lifeline by ordering further particulars (to which a further defence might be filed, followed by further referral to a Judge for directions and allocation) the court is respectfully invited to strike this claim out. 

12. The facts in this defence come from the Defendant's own knowledge and honest belief.  To pre-empt the usual template responses from this serial litigator: the court process is outside of the Defendant's life experience and they cannot be criticised for using, in part, pre-written wording suggested by a reliable online help resource. The Claimant is urged not to patronise the Defendant with (ironically template) unfounded accusations of not understanding their defence. 

skoobimum

I really just need help with the deadline for defence following the judgement being set aside & my paragraphs 2 & 3 (& whether the others would apply in my case) thank you for any assistance. 

Coupon-mad

I don't think it will be +5 days.

I think it will be 14 days from the date of the court's letter but the date it was typed IS NOT the date at the bottom of the Order (that's when the Judge dictated it).

The dates SHOULD be clear on the Order?

Show us the redacted Order.

In short:

I'd email the signed & dated defence tomorrow morning to the (local?) court which ordered it (or did the CCBC handle it?) and to DCBLegal.

Good research.  Nicely done so far.

I'd remove:

"The Driver was a patron" (you don't know)

and remove this admission - NEVER admit fault:

" & the fact that this has slipped down below the visible portion of the windscreen & could not be read from outside would be unknown to the driver upon exiting & could have been caused by the draft of the door closing eg."

And remove paragraph 12 (not relevant).

I WOULD ADD THAT A WITNESS STATEMENT AND PHOTO EVIDENCE WILL BE SUBMITTED BEFORE THE HEARING.

And make sure you do!

skoobimum

Thanks for help & comments, I will make sure to amend accordingly exactly as you say. Do I add about witness statement & photographic evidence within the defence or just on email that defence is attached to? & I email to CCBAC and DCB Legal? (I was under impression I didn’t have to let them know anything & wait until court did?) I cannot see a specified date but here are the redacted letters I received; 

Coupon-mad

I can't see a date either, so the 14 days is technically already up.  Ludicrous!

Actually you don't need to add the stuff about a WS and evidence because the case is still at the CCBC so it will now follow the normal course!

I would copy in DCBLegal so they can be in no doubt that you HAVE defended.  After all this faff, don't give them any wriggle room to try a default judgment again.

I would also attach a copy of that Order as well as your PDF defence and refer to it in your covering email and say that the Judge's Order only just arrived, this week:

1. Send your signed & dated pdf as an email attachment to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk but due to the CCBC's dysfunctional systems, only do this during working hours (a weekday) and you MUST get an acknowledgement straight back or it is NOT submitted.
2. Just put the claim number (check it very carefully) and the word Defence in the email title, and in the body of the email something like 'URGENT RE CLAIM XXXXXXXX - Please find my Defence attached.
3. IMPORTANT - MAKE SURE YOU GET AN EMAIL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT BACK FROM THE CCBC!   After filing your Defence, there is more to do.
4. Do not be surprised to receive an early copy of the Claimant's Directions Questionnaire and the usual intimidating template letter saying they 'intend to proceed'. Nothing of interest there. Just file it.
5. Wait for your own Directions Questionnaire from the CCBC (takes TWO MONTHS at the moment) or download one - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/form-n180-directions-questionnaire-small-claims-track and then complete it as described by bargepole in his 'what happens when' post linked from post #2 of the NEWBIES thread - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/64350585#Comment_64350585
6. The completed DQ should be returned by email to the CCBC to the same address and in the same way as your Defence was filed earlier.  
   
7. Send a copy of your completed DQ to the Claimant's solicitor by email.

skoobimum

Thank you so much. I will send both emails tmrw morning. I will attach the court letter as suggested & also point out that it isn’t dated (apart from posting date) 
i had started to submit my defence on the MCOL website until I realised it was only 122 characters & I wasn’t going to be able to ‘tweet’ my response 😂 so I haven’t gone any further & this is what led me to finding out how to go about emailing a detailed defence instead. Do I need to write anything in that box (now it has been started) to say ‘detailed defence statement sent via email’ for example? 

Thank you 😊 

KeithP

skoobimum said:
Do I need to write anything in that box (now it has been started) to say ‘detailed defence statement sent via email’ for example? 

Do not write anything in that box.
If you were to do so, it will be taken as your full Defence.
Make sure that box is absolutely empty.

skoobimum

Surely this would still stand if there is no other ‘date’ on the order? - 5 days after it was issued? Assuming it was issued on the day it was dated ie: 12th June? (Removed by Forum Team)

KeithP

skoobimum said:

Surely this would still stand if there is no other ‘date’ on the order? - 5 days after it was issued? Assuming it was issued on the day it was dated ie: 12th June? 

But that bit you have highlighted says "...of service of the claim on you...".
How does that fit with your situation?

KeithP

Your full name and your Claim Number are clearly visible on that image you have shown us.

skoobimum

Because if the judgement has been put aside I was under the impression that it has effectively gone back to the ‘claim’ stage?