ADVICE: Premier Parking Solutions LTD Court Date set

Coupon-mad

Seen it before. Nothing is new here.  You can search the forum to find what others have done about objecting to it.

Have you read yesterday's DLUHC publication of their Draft Impact Assessment and taken notes if things in it you want your Judge to know about the true cost of 'debt recovery' stage?

My notes about it are in the Discussion thread I started yesterday and I've edited the Template Defence with words you can grab for your hearing crib sheet.

cornboy

I will take a look at this, if you want I can send you a copy of the statement they have sent?

Coupon-mad

I can't really help by pm, as you noticed! Better on this thread.

cornboy

I lost more to follow

Coupon-mad

cornboy said:

I lost more to follow

Ahhh, bad luck.  Bad Judge or ?

Please do tell us what was said.

Did the Judge think you were probably driving, or alternatively that they had complied with the POFA and that the signs were prominent enough?

cornboy

@Coupon-mad thanks for the quick reply.

The whole experience was good and a great learning experience.

I felt the judge was helpful but I did feel out of my depth as this is just a daily thing for both the claimant and the judge. He did guide me through the whole event and prompted me and even helped me a little to get to the information he needed.

The person for the claimant was a rent a legal person, he didn't work for BW Legal.

In the summaries the other party raised the following points.

1) Although I may not have been the driver as the registered keeper I am liable.

My reply showed cases where this was not proven as per the info given in here.


2) They had served me with all the various letters and chances for mediation

My responds was that the first I had knew of this case was the letter before action


3) All signage was clear and complied with the requirements

I stated they were not, placement was too high and that they were hard to read clearly. Also that none of the photos they showed we date stamped so there was no proof that the signage within the photos were even there on the day in question. 

4) The fine was not disproportional as cited Beavis case to prove

I counter argued that they were and show relevant info from forum and showed the DLUHC publication of their Draft Impact Assessment on costs. The judge took this into account but felt that this as this was not in place and even if it were agreed upon it would not be retrospective and therefore didn't have any bearing.


The judge thank both parties and also thanked me for pointing him to the various cases which he said he would look through. He then gave us 25mins so he could go over all his notes and read the various cases. 

When we came back in the went thought each part siding with the claimant on each part for the following reasons. (this is paraphrased) 

1) Although there are cases where the keeper is not liable the client had followed all the steps laid out and the keeper is liable.

2) All letters had been served and the law of probability would deem that I would have received all if not some. The fact I only received the letter before court also indicated that at that point I have time to ask for mediation. I also declined mediation on my questionnaire.

3) On the signage he felt that had met the criteria for the signage however he did not that there was little proof that the signage was there on the date in question. However as the claimant had provided a list of other people that had paid on that day there was proof that signage was adequate for those people to understand it and make payment. The assumption being that the same signage was in fact in place.

4) Can really remember his reason for this I had lost the will to live at this point but he felt that the signage had told of the risk and that the other cost were take form the legal cost of the case. The 

After this they then wanted to claim extra money from me, i didn't really understand this bit but t think it was for wasting time and the legal fees for this... The judge felt that I had the right to defend the claim and that the fact I had turned up to the hearing and the work I had put in meant that I had not wasted any ones time.

I was order to pay within the time given

Not sure if the judges comments are made public so I can show you, to be fair the whole thing was a bit of a blur at the start and I wish I had as much experience as the Legal professional as at times I felt out of my depth.

Like I said at the beginning its a learning experience for which I am glad of, if I ever have to do this again I will know what to expect.

Umkomaas

Sorry to hear your outcome was not the positive one we'd hoped for. 

Not sure if the judges comments are made public so I can show you, to be fair the whole thing was a bit of a blur

The comments aren't made public. Transcripts of the case are available for the defendant and claimant to purchase, but can be prohibitively expenses (3 figure sum, possibly in excess of what you've already been ordered to pay). Unless there is a major issue arising in a judge's decision, transcripts are of little value. 

Like I said at the beginning it's a learning experience for which I am glad of, if I ever have to do this again I will know what to expect.

It's good to hear that you've had some really useful life experience and you're better prepared should you have to do this again. Take further comfort from the fact that it will have cost the PPC far more than they have netted from you. 

Thank you so much for your excellent court feedback. Good luck for the future. 👍

Le_Kirk

Thanks for a good report, sorry about the outcome.