Justice Committee – Inquiry into the County Court

pinkelephant12

If anyone has recent experience of a county court case, this might be good way of giving feedback to Parliament.  The Parliamentary Justice Committee’s call for evidence is open until 14th December.

https://committees.parliament.uk/work/7972/work-of-the-county-court/

One of their areas of interest is ‘The causes of action giving rise to claims in the County Court’.  It would be useful if the committee was made aware of the amount of court time wasted on parking cases.

Coupon-mad

Wow this is an important one. Thanks!

Us regulars should be doing this Call for Evidence re the quarter of small claims that currently clutter up the family/civil courts with unjustified roboclaims.

patient_dream

pinkelephant12 said:

If anyone has recent experience of a county court case, this might be good way of giving feedback to Parliament.  The Parliamentary Justice Committee’s call for evidence is open until 14th December.

https://committees.parliament.uk/work/7972/work-of-the-county-court/

One of their areas of interest is ‘The causes of action giving rise to claims in the County Court’.  It would be useful if the committee was made aware of the amount of court time wasted on parking cases.

Thank you, a positive chance to expose  those who clog up the court system

1: ROBO CLAIMERS. Sanctions should be applied
2: NAME AND SHAME THE SO CALLED LEGAL TIMEWASTERS

Coupon-mad

I think - as is the case in some other Countries* - either bulk litigator legal firms should be disallowed to file/act in claims under a few hundred pounds...

OR

...claiming legal fees should be banned in cases under a grand, to disincentivise bulk litigation. Same effect.

After all, parking claims in 2023 must number around half a million. They ARE the problem.

*we should dig out evidence of this and how it works in other countries including Scotland.
A Call for Evidence is not about ranting opinion.  Only evidence.

patient_dream

Coupon-mad said:

I think - as is the case in some other Countries* - either bulk litigator legal firms should be disallowed to file/act in claims under a few hundred pounds...

OR

...claiming legal fees should be banned in cases under a grand, to disincentivise bulk litigation. Same effect.

After all, parking claims in 2023 must number around half a million. They ARE the problem.

*we should dig out evidence of this and how it works in other countries including Scotland.
A Call for Evidence is not about ranting opinion.  Only evidence.

You are right, these crazzies must be culled.

Reading between the lines about this call for evidence, it's for the County Courts, even though Crown courts have a mega backlog.

The county court system will have a full list of discontinuations, no doubt far more than we see here and a full list of failures by these legals who choose to waste the courts time
This applies to all those legals in the parking scam who live IN fantasy land

My favourite would be that any claim under £300 which must exclude court fees and legal costs and fakes is banned
That is 3 parking tickets at the current rate of £100 or 6 if the charge is reduced to £50

The only companies who will RANT, is the parking industry as with the JR

The new code of practice and the independent appeals service should reduce the dodgy legal rubbish anyway

I am certain it is judges and the County Courts who have instigated  this "call for evidence" simply because of the mega timewasting from these very dodgy legals and in particular .. DCBL 

Nellymoser

Here's a copy of email I recently received from the Justice Committee 

Dear all,

You will have seen that the Government has announced that the General Election will be on 4 July. Parliament is being prorogued on Friday 24 May and dissolution will take place on Thursday 30 May.

Once prorogation takes place select committees cannot meet, and once dissolution takes place there are no longer any Members of Parliament. Unfortunately, this means that all ongoing work by the Justice Committee will cease from the moment prorogation takes place on Friday 24 May.

This means that this Justice Committee will not be able to produce a report for the inquiry on the work of the County Court. We, as a team, wish to record our thanks to everyone who contributed evidence to the inquiry. We are disappointed that we won’t be able to support the Committee to produce a report for this inquiry.

The evidence submitted and published will remain on the Committee’s website and we have no doubt that it will have a significant influence on the future debate on the County Court and civil justice reform. After the General Election, there will be a new Justice Committee and the evidence published for this inquiry could well influence their work.

The Justice Committee relies on the excellent work done by those who submit evidence. Thank you again for your contribution to this inquiry and to the work of the Justice Committee. We look forward to working with you in the next Parliament.

The outgoing Chair, Sir Bob Neill KC (Hon) has written a letter of thanks to everyone that has contributed to the work of the Justice Committee:
committees.parliament.uk/publications/44981/documents/223257/default/

Kind regards,

The Justice Committee Team
Dr Jack Simson Caird
Deputy Counsel
Justice Committee

They deserve a gold star for taking the time to acknowledge and thank those who responded and submitted evidence. We'll just need to wait and hope the new gov uses that evidence when considering future civil justice reform. 

Coupon-mad

Yes I got that email too.

Feels like we'll have to repeat things we've already said, in the Autumn. Sums up what I've been doing since 2020, going back over old ground on the Steering Group, each time there was a cabinet reshuffle.

On the positive side (thanks to @bargepole for spotting it) this managed to be quickly pushed through, so none of the 2019 Act is left not 'in force':

The Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 (Commencement) Regulations 2024 (legislation.gov.uk)

Previously, all the important parts of the 2019 Act were left hanging so the above statutory instrument was required:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/section/12

It had said:
"2) The remaining provisions of this Act come into force on such day as the Secretary of State may by regulations appoint."

So now it's all in force from 20th May 2024.

The timing can't be a coincidence, so it is clear that the Code won't disappear.  Yet more delay but we will get there...whoever is the relevant Secretary of State will be required to carry on with the final IA and laying the Code before Parliament.

Nellymoser

@Coupon-mad you definitely deserve more than a gold star for not resigning from that unpaid job on the Steering Group....having to keep going back over old ground must have had you pulling your hair out. 

Coupon-mad

Yep, all the good guys' side were annoyed by each delay (several reshuffles and a couple of new PMs didn't help!) but we - the consumer side - are used to it now, so we'll just dig our heels in again.

Without going into any detail about the work of the Group, at every stage after a staff change I just assumed that any new faces have been 'got at' first by the dark side, and have possibly fallen for the PPC suits' plausible rhetoric.

Everything probably sounds almost reasonable to an uninitiated Civil Servant when you are faced with biased anti-motorist rubbish and laughable phrases like the ones fed to the DLUHC Select Committee, who looked like nodding dogs as the APAs told them with an earnest face:

'we work hard on debt resolution and CCJs are a last resort'.  

Load of crap.  We all know that.

But it's been a real uphill battle to make sure any new staff/Ministers didn't fall for it, and if they had, they were encouraged to give their heads a wobble, remember what the Knight Act is actually all about and look at the facts (CCJ numbers being the biggest giveaway that court is CLEARLY a 'first resort' for the greedy legals).

Consumers and the court service are being played. it has to stop.

I'd be delighted if parking cases were removed from court altogether, so that no-one's credit, livelihood and social mobility hopes & dreams could be damaged by roboclaim legals firing out drivel claims.  

The_Slithy_Tove

A couple of new threads have popped up in relation to the news items today (27/06) about the PPCs' joint new Code of Practice. My question here in regard to this thread is when the Act finally comes into force, will it trump what the PPCs have just done and impose some more sensible rules?

Coupon-mad

Yes.