County Court Claim Form - Defence draft

Lifeisarollercoaster12

Hi
I recently received a claim form from a MET parking fine in 2018. This had been appealed and lost with MET and POPLA. I ignored further correspondence until now. I have used MCOL to file AOS so am writing my defence. I would ask if someone could give me some constructive criticism before I send off. 

The basics, I went for a family day out and paid for 6 hours in a car park. It was a long journey so sorted the kids out when we arrived and paid at the ticket machine 8 minutes after arrival. On returning to the vehicle in time before the parking ended one of the children had an unfortunate nappy incident which I sorted out before leaving the car park meaning I overstayed by 10 mins. In short I paid for 360 minutes but the car park ANPR captured a 378 minute stay. I thought nothing of it as usually there is a grace period but I will never expect this again. Please see draft defence to go back to the court. Thanks for your help.

DEFENCE

1.  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 in breach of any term.  Further, it is denied that this Claimant (understood to have a bare licence as agents) 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 boilerplate text in the Particulars of Claim ('the POC').

2. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper and driver of the vehicle in question but liability is denied. 

3 The defendant used this car park on a family day out. The defendant visited the parking machine to pay as soon as reasonably practicable after entering the car park. With two small children to care for and tend to after a long journey this was not immediate but was within minutes. The defendant made a payment intended to cover the full period of stay, however on returning to the car park at the end of the visit the baby had a toilet emergency which needed to be dealt with before leaving the area and making a long journey home.

It is clear the defendant had no intention of not paying to park in this car park and made payment in good faith. It was not intended to overstay and the defendant would expect a reasonable company to give a period of grace upon entering and leaving a car park. It is felt that the initial charge and all following inflated costs were grossly excessive and not in proportion to the short period of minutes at the beginning and end of the stay that were incurred due to a family emergency.

4. The facts in this defence come from the Defendant's own knowledge and honest belief.  The Defendant should not be criticised for using some pre-written wording from a reliable source.  The Claimant is urged not to patronise the Defendant with unfounded accusations of not understanding their defence. This Defendant signed it after full research and having read this defence several times, because the court process is outside of their life experience.  

Coupon-mad

I've edited the Template Defence a few days ago and among other tweaks, para 2 is longer now and a few things are changed.  Para 4 is not as shown above.  Use the latest version.

Remove this from your defence. There is no allegation of overstay in the POC so don't help them out:

"The defendant made a The defendant made a payment intended to cover the full period of stay, however on returning to the car park at the end of the visit the baby had a toilet emergency which needed to be dealt with before leaving the area and making a long journey home. 

It is clear the defendant had no intention of not paying to park in this car park and made payment in good faith. It was not intended to overstay and the defendant would expect a reasonable company to give a period of grace upon entering and leaving a car park. It is felt that the initial charge and all following inflated costs were grossly excessive and not in proportion to the short period of minutes at the beginning and end of the stay that were incurred due to a family emergency."

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

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

Lifeisarollercoaster12

Hi, thanks for looking at this. The issue date was 9th August and the Acknowledgment of Service was filed on 16th August

KeithP

Lifeisarollercoaster12 said:

The issue date was 9th August and the Acknowledgment of Service was filed on 16th August

With a Claim Issue Date of 9th August, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 11th September 2023 to file your Defence.

That's over two weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence and it is good to see that you are not leaving 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'.

Lifeisarollercoaster12

Thanks for all your advice. I have re drafted the defence as below. I wasn't sure how to word it as I felt my defence was based on a grace period that should be given and sympathy towards having to change a baby. Though, what you are saying makes complete sense re the overstay as I don't want to help them and they appear to have just given the ticket for non payment.

1.  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 in breach of any term.  Further, it is denied that this Claimant (understood to have a bare licence as agents) 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 boilerplate text in the Particulars of Claim ('the POC').

The facts known to the Defendant:

2. The facts in this defence come from the Defendant's own knowledge and honest belief.  Conversely, the Claimant sets out a cut-and-paste incoherent and sparse statement of case.  The POC is devoid of any detail and even lacks specific breach allegation(s), making it very difficult to respond. However, it is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper and driver of the vehicle.

3. The defendant used this car park on a family day out. The defendant visited the parking machine to pay as soon as reasonably practicable after entering the car park.

The defendant made payment for use of the car park in good faith. However was surprised to receive a parking fine with highly inflated costs which were grossly excessive and unfair.

Le_Kirk

All paragraphs require a number; just combine your last sentence with the rest of para 3#, it is all about the same argument and doesn't need a separate para.

1505grandad

"......" parking fine......"  -  it is not a fine  -  parking charge. You will not find any mention of that word in any of their correspondence.

Coupon-mad

Apart from that, all good for this stage.

Lifeisarollercoaster12

Hi I sent off my defence re the above and received an acknowledgement from county court in September 2023. Aside from a standard letter from the parking firms legal representative offering to end the claim now for a lower amount in October (which I didn’t respond to) I have heard nothing and especially nothing official from the court. What happens now, can they proceed with this at any given time? Would like an end to this at some point. 

KeithP

Does your MCOL Claim History offer any clues as to what's happening?