UKPC - Court Claim

G1M3378

Hello all, I'm a newbie here and have already looked up the forum and hundreds thread in many tabs and in many days, my head is pretty congested with lots of info here.

Firstly, thank you to all the contributors in this forum. I received a claim form from County Court (Northampton) issued on 22 June, and immediately responded the claim through Moneyclaim website. I chose dispute the whole claim. I have drafted out the defense email in draft, copied some from the draft template from the forum, I try my best to understand which is applicable to my case, but I'm currently not in the best position due to under bereavement. On 14hth December, Defendant received a PCN from UKPC for overstayed in retail parking space. Defendant didn't see the sign as it was up high in a very high lamppost, given that it was very dark at 3pm already. However, Defendant does see a signage ' Customer Parking Only '. Hence Defendant parked and went to Decathlon to shop but overstayed without seeing the restriction sign. Anyway, PCN received, Letter of Claim received and following by Claim form from County Court.

Can someone please help me to look at my draft please? Thank you so much from my bottom of my heart. (I'm not allowed to post any pictures and links due I'm still a newbie, hope I can post the link with someone replying to my post, perhaps?)

Secondly, do I also need to prepare a witness statement for hearing court use? What's the difference from the draft? 

Best wishes,
G1M3378

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

G1M3378

KeithP said:

Hello and welcome.

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

Upon 25th June 2023. Thanks

G1M3378

To be specific:

Claim History:

A claim was issued against you on 22/06/2023

Your acknowledgment of service was submitted on 25/06/2023 at 13:26:30

Your acknowledgment of service was received on 26/06/2023 at 01:08:25

Thank you.

Trainerman

Secondly, do I also need to prepare a witness statement for hearing court use? What's the difference from the draft? 

Do not get confused. Defence comes first, witness statement only when (if) you have a court date. It is all in the "Newbies" if you give that a good read.

How long was the alleged overstay ?

KeithP

G1M3378 said:

Claim History:

A claim was issued against you on 22/06/2023

Your acknowledgment of service was received on 26/06/2023 at 01:08:25

With a Claim Issue Date of 22nd June, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service on 26th June, you have until 4pm on Monday 24th July 2023 to file your Defence.

That's over two 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 at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Don't miss the deadline 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'.

G1M3378

Thanks, would it be alright to give me feedback in my defense draft? Is there a way to show you my draft please?
Thank you.

G1M3378

Trainerman said:

Secondly, do I also need to prepare a witness statement for hearing court use? What's the difference from the draft? 

Do not get confused. Defence comes first, witness statement only when (if) you have a court date. It is all in the "Newbies" if you give that a good read.

How long was the alleged overstay ?

Nearly 1:30hrs exceeded the maximum stay for 2:30hours.

Coupon-mad

G1M3378 said:

Thanks, would it be alright to give me feedback in my defense draft? Is there a way to show you my draft please?
Thank you.

Just use the defence by @Johny86 which includes extra paragraphs 5-11 about DCBLegal's woeful Particulars of Claim.

Remove Johny's paragraph 3 and 4 only and replace them with two paragraphs of your own facts.
 

Para 3 will be about being the driver and being a genuine shopper in Decathlon.

Para 4 will be about seeing no signs about parking except that this was 'free customer parking' as advertised at the entrance to the retail park.  Any signs with purported UKPC terms were inadequate and incapable of forming a contract and the Defendant does not know from the sparse 'Roboclaim' bulk copy & paste Particulars, what they are supposed to have breached.

At no point refer to overstaying.

Boat_to_Bolivia

Yes you can post your paragraphs 3 and 4 here for feedback. Just those 2 paragraphs though, not the whole defence.

G1M3378

Below was what I drafted. Can you please comment what is necessary to mention what is not? Thank you.


3. On 14th December 2022, the driver parked the vehicle at the parking space in front of Decathlon retail shop that has visible signage board for ‘Customer Parking Only’ and another signage board of ‘No Overnight Parking’. Driver also made a purchase from Decathlon. Driver did not see any other signage until the driver leaving the premise and saw a customer struggle reading the signage then driver noticed there was a very high signage that has content is filled with fine print information up in a 8ft lamppost which is at base levels discrimination against all the disable and learning difficulties community, moreover the signage was unlit in darkness and the driver barely 5ft tall. This is clearly an inadequate positioning of signs and at unsuitable heights.

 

4.The signage is inadequate in terms of the following

• Lack of clarity and prominence of terms and conditions
• Illegible text due to font size, density, colour and complexity
• Large numbers of confusing and conflicting signs, including signs from other parties, such that it was not clear which signs had precedence
• Lack of relevant terms and conditions, such as the fees for parking
• Inadequate positioning of signs, at unsuitable heights

Any signs with purported UKPC terms were inadequate and incapable of forming a contract and the Defendant does not know from the sparse 'Roboclaim' bulk copy & paste Particulars, what they are supposed to have breached.

I tried to adapt @johny86 defence template, when I clicked the dropbox it said the file has been deleted. Not sure if I search it correctly, can you please guide me how to get to the DCBLegal's paragraph? Thank you so so so so much.