CCJ Set Aside Following Parking Fine

Coupon-mad

I think you'd do better to include a draft Order AND full WS and evidence bundle now and a draft defence too.

In your case, as the claim WAS served, you might need the latter.

Putting the bundle off until later might put pressure on you in the Spring at a time when it won't be so fresh in your mind & real life concerns might be taking priority.  You never know.  I'd get it all done now.

Or as much as you possibly can, then if need be, add a supplementary WS with extra evidence once you get a hearing date.

To this (below)  I'd add that one of the few things the sparse claim did specify was a car park location, which enabled you to raise a prompt complaint with the Claimant's principal, the landowner (name them).

• This extremely poor pleading means the case only became apparent to me late in the process.  I did not know how to defend an unquantified sum of £510 which bore no relation to any signs, and where there was no allegation set out that I could have reasonably been expected to respond to at the time of the Claim.

And all paragraphs need a number.

raburgess1

See below for my Witness Statement to date, there are still some points I'm adding to the sequence of events in relation to phone calls but awaiting information from my network provider. I just wanted to make sure I'm on the right track, I've add  

WITNESS STATEMENT OF DEFENDANT

1.  I am xxxx of xxxxx, and I am the Defendant against whom this claim is made. The facts are true to the best of my belief and my account has been prepared based upon my own knowledge.

2.  This is my supporting statement to my application dated ** January 2024 requesting to:

a.     Set aside The Judgment by default entered against the Defendant on ** October 2023.

b.     The claim should also be struck out as for want of compliant Particulars of Claim, in view of the recent persuasive appeal case of CEL v Chan; another generic parking claim where the Particulars of Claim were equally defective.

c.      Costs of the application be paid by the Claimant to the Defendant in the sum of £275.

Default Judgement

3.  I was the registered keeper of the vehicle at the time of the alleged event.

4.  I am aware that the Claimant is Smart Parking Ltd, and that the assumed claim is in respect of an unpaid Parking Charge Notice.

5.  The CCJ should be set aside under CPR 13.3, there being several good reasons to support the fact that the CCJ should not stand under the circumstances and I should be afforded the opportunity to defend it, or in the alternative, a chance for the parking operator Claimant to discontinue the Claim (as per the instructions of their principal) once this CCJ is set aside 

6.  The Claim was defective. It does not even explain how many parking charges are being sought, the dates of them (assuming more than two) or what the terms were, or what the various alleged breaches were, why the sum is so extortionately high and why interest appears to have been applied on the whole quantum from an unknown single date when it would be impossible for £510 to have been due.  The POC appear to be in breach of CPR 16.4, 16PD3 and 16PD7, and fail to "state all facts necessary for the purpose of formulating a complete cause of action". The Defendant was unable, on the basis of the POC, to understand with certainty what case, allegation(s) and what heads of cost were being pursued, and believed that the charges were being cancelled.  This all made it particularly difficult to respond with a 'defence' at the time.  Compliance with the CPRs is not optional for a Claimant - and their breach came first, and their breach caused my difficulty in knowing how to defend. If the parking operator believed that there was an adequate case it needs to be properly pleaded, with supplementary Particulars in multi-PCN cases.

7.  The Defendant draws to the attention of the allocating Judge that there is now a persuasive Appeal judgment to support striking out the claim (in these exact circumstances of typically poorly pleaded private parking claims, and the extant PoC seen here are far worse than the one seen on Appeal).  The Defendant believes that dismissing this meritless claim is the correct course, with the Overriding Objective in mind.  Bulk litigators (legal firms) should know better than to make little or no attempt to comply with the Practice Direction.  By continuing to plead cases with generic auto-fill unspecific wording, private parking firms should not be surprised when courts strike out their claims based in the following persuasive authority.

8.  A recent persuasive appeal judgment in Civil Enforcement Limited v Chan (Ref. E7GM9W44) would indicate the POC fails to comply with Civil Procedure Rule 16.4(1)(e) and Practice Direction Part 16.7.5. On the 15th August 2023, in the cited case, HHJ Murch held that 'the particulars of the claim as filed and served did not set out the conduct which amounted to the breach in reliance upon which the claimant would be able to bring a claim for breach of contract'. The same is true in this case and in view of the Chan judgment (transcript attached) the Court should strike out the claim, using its powers pursuant to CPR 3.4. 

9. This extremely poor pleading means the case only became apparent to me late in the process.  I did not know how to defend an unquantified sum of £510 which bore no relation to any signs, and where there was no allegation set out that I could have reasonably been expected to respond to at the time of the Claim. Although the claim did provide details of a car park location which enabled me to raise a prompt complaint with the Claimant’s principal, the landowner Hengrove Park Leisure Centre (Bristol City Council).

10. I did not ignore it; the landowner wanted the charges cancelled and the Claimant knows this yet still pressed ahead with a default CCJ.  Rightly or wrongly, I continued to complain to the parking operator's principal (Hengrove Park Leisure Centre) and following dialogue with the leisure centre that had commenced before the date of the Claim, they agreed to cancel these parking charges and this was finally confirmed in October 2023 with payments made by myself to Hengrove Park Leisure Centre to cover costs related to handling the parking charges. See Exhibit x.

11.  In the time between my initial dialogue and the confirmation of the cancelling of all parking charges this Claimant had not only filed a claim but sought default judgment, despite knowing that the landowner had contacted them to require cancellation.

Sequence of Recent Events

12.  On 12 November 2022 I joined Hengrove Park Leisure Centre. Having previously been a member of the Leisure Centre I was not  made aware of any changes in the parking procedures and so adopted those that I was aware of.

13.  Towards the conclusion of November 2022, a staff member at the Leisure Centre informed me to utilise a tablet for registering my vehicle in the event of using the on-site car park. It was during this period that I observed several newly displayed posters within the Leisure Centre, notifying visitors about the alteration in the car parking system.

14.  On ** February 2023 I received a pay now notice (evidence) from Debt Recovery Plus acting on behalf of the Claimant, Smart Parking Ltd for parking offences on ** November 2022, ** November 2022 and ** November 2022 at Hengrove Park Leisure Centre. I was not made aware of these initial parking changes due to the notifications being sent to a previous address as I had not updated my V5C since moving to a new property.

15.  On ** February 2023 via phone call (evidence) and on the ** February 2023 in person, I spoke with a members of staff at the leisure centre to complain about the parking fines I had received in relation to not being told of the changed parking arrangements. I was advised to initially contact the Claimant, Smart Parking Ltd explaining the circumstances to which I had received the parking charges.

16.  On ** February 2023 I submitted a subject access request via email (evidence) to the Claimant, Smart Parking Ltd.

17.  Between the 17 February and the 7 March 2023 a number of emails between myself and the Claimant, Smart Parking Ltd were exchanged with information pertaining to the parking charges finally issued on the 7 March 2023.

18.  In and around August 2023 I spoke to a member of staff of the Leisure Centre via telecon, updating them on the situation to date. The member of staff explained that due to an influx of complaints from members in a similar situation to myself the Leisure Centre had sought an agreement with the Claimant, Smart Parking Ltd that enabled them to cancel parking charges. I was told that my matter would be dealt with.

19.  On 18 October 2023, due to continued correspondence from the Claimant, Smart Parking Ltd I spoke with a member of staff at the Leisure Centre who informed me that due to the stage at which my parking charges were I would need to pay an fee of £20.00 per parking charge to cover associated administration costs to which I did, paying a total of £60.00 to cover the three parking charges (evidence). I expressed my urgency to the Leisure Centre in resolving the matter as soon as possible.

20.  On 3 December 2023 I received an email from Clearscore informing me that my credit score had changed. On further investigation I was made aware that I had received a CCJ on the 9 October 2023 which had negatively affected my score.

21.  On 4 December I contacted the Leisure Centre asking for an update on the parking charges to which I was informed that the necessary administration fees had been sent onto Smart Parking Ltd on the 9 November 2023. I later received confirmation of this conversation via email on 5 December 2023 from the Leisure Centre (evidence).

Statement of Truth

I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

signed & dated

Coupon-mad

You can't wait any longer.  This is in danger of not acting promptly enough.  Over a month has now passed since you found out - and that's not OK, especially when your case is one where the claim was properly served.

I did advise you a week ago, what to do now - QUICKLY - and that you can add more later.  This N244 needs to go in on Monday.

Change this:

20.  On 3 December 2023

To this:

20.  In December 2023

raburgess1

Thanks for the comments.

I will add the WS to Section 10 and send off with the evidence bundle and draft order in Word format today. Can a draft defence wait? I will write it within the next week whilst things are relatively fresh in my mind.

Is it worth adding the emails to Smart Parking's solicitors in relation to my N244 application and their lack of response. 

In addition to this and one to potentially add to my defence but I've noticed that the old parking signs have been replaced. Unfortunately the old ones were taken down a while ago so I was unable to get a photo. But the parking section on the leisure centre's website at the time of my parking charges can be seen here. For comparison the same section on the latest version of the website is here.

Note the addition of:

"All users must key in their vehicle registration upon arrival for every visit on the keypads just past reception to avoid possible fines. Blue badge holders must register their blue badges at reception with a valid blue badge against each vehicle registration."

Coupon-mad

Done it today?  Rang up and paid the fee?

raburgess1

I am about to go and post it and will ring up and pay tomorrow. Is it two copies that of each document that need to be sent.

Coupon-mad

Post it? I don't understand.

You are simply emailing a PDF signed & dated WS, a WORD DOC (separate sheet) Draft Order and your completed N244 to the usual CCBCAQ email address.

Then work on a defence and any other evidence to add before the hearing this Spring.

raburgess1

Sorry was in a hurry when I sent that, I meant email not post. Will ring up court and pay tomorrow first thing.

@Coupon-mad would just like to say a sincere thank you for your help on this so far, I really would have been lost without your assistance. I'll crack on with my defence over the next couple of weeks and post drafts on this post for comment.

raburgess1

As an update to the above I got a court date of mid-June. In the time between my last post and today I have made efforts with the land owner (the Leisure Centre) to speak to smart parking about my ticket and today I received the below email and consent order. I think this is the good news I had hoped for but before I celebrate, on signing this will my CCJ be agreed to be removed? 

Additionally will I be compensated for the N244 application costs (not an issue if not just wondered if that  might be the case).

Thanks in advance.

LDast

What was written in your draft order? According to that order, you have paid the CCJ and the £275 application fee for a contested set aside but now they are saying that you have paid everything and they agree to have the CCJ set aside which would mean that it is expunged from your record. However er, you only had to pay £108 to have a set aside with consent.

It's your money and credit record so as long as you are satisfied that the end result is no CCJ, then by all mens accept and sign it.