VCS Court claims for stopping at East Midlands Airport - defence

tibisi

Update (March 2024):

One of the cases VCS brought against me has been transferred to my local court, and I await a hearing date.

Frustratingly, on the second case (essentially a duplicate of the first), I received in yesterday's post a judgment in default against me, on the grounds that I did not respond to the claim form (untrue - I have the auto-confirmation emails that came through immediately after submitting my defence for each case).

I gather that I will now need to complete an N244 form (and pay a handsome fee) requesting that the judgment be set aside. 

If anyone can help on the following, I would appreciate your advice:

1) Is the N244 application fee recoverable, given that it seems to have been an administrative error (possibly on the part of the court itself, if not the claimant)? If not, it would be marginally cheaper to just pay the claimant, although that would be deeply galling given that the whole enterprise was, in my view, an exploitative scam from the outset. 

2) Do I need to include a draft order with the N244 form (Section 4), or do I simply ask that the judgment be set aside? If yes to the draft order, are there any templates/useful threads that anyone can point me towards please. 

Thanks forumites!

Le_Kirk

tibisi said:

Frustratingly, on the second case (essentially a duplicate of the first), I received in yesterday's post a judgment in default against me, on the grounds that I did not respond to the claim form (untrue - I have the auto-confirmation emails that came through immediately after submitting my defence for each case).

I gather that I will now need to complete an N244 form (and pay a handsome fee) requesting that the judgment be set aside. 

No, if you did submit your defence on time and have proof, then contact the CNBC and COMPLAIN that they have not done their job properly, show the proof that defence was submitted on time and submit your defence again in the same e-mail.  There have been several cases like this recently, search the forum.

Coupon-mad

I gather that I will now need to complete an N244 form (and pay a handsome fee) requesting that the judgment be set aside. 

No you don't.  Very common at the moment as the CNBC is falling over, due to parking cases (mainly). Raise merry hell and ask for the court manager to set aside that Order.

tibisi

A belated thank you @Le_Kirk and @Coupon-mad, that was good and valuable advice. With a bit of perseverance, I was able to get the CNBC to set aside the judgement in default. 

I now have a hearing date for that claim (the other one seems to be in limbo - I've emailed my local court asking them to merge the claims and deal with them both at the one hearing).

I am currently preparing my witness statement using examples from other threads.   

Coupon-mad

Very good. Recent examples are in threads by:

@imulsion

@Harry77

@Defendant911

If the other claim is about the same facts and car park but just a different dated PCN, add in the usual words about Henderson v Henderson cause of action estoppel.

When you do email your WS and evidence this month, put again in the body if the email and the subject line, BOTH Claim numbers and state:

'duplicate facts claims: please consolidate so that both are heard at the hearing on DATE which will need a time extension'