Help with defence for court

Reggie79

Hi everyone, 

I have recieved a letter about my case going to court for a parking ticket I got from UK Parking Control limited earlier this year.
I have read the newbies thread and submitted by acknowledgement of service.
I am now putting together my defence letter, planning on using the template in the thread that has kindly been provided. 

I just had a couple of things to ask, the parking ticket I got was at a shopping centre and I did loose track of time and overstay the 3 hour limit. So I guess I don't dispute that I should pay the £100 fine. However, I do not agree that I should be paying the extra costs they have added: £70 for 'damages' which is the costs of debt recovery fees, plus £50 for legal fees and £35 for court fees. As far as I understand the £100 fine is meant to cover for those costs so it is double recovery?

I also did not recieve the initial letter about the parking ticket, and by the time I recived the second saying I am now due to pay £100 I logged onto my ticket and it was already showing as £170 instead of £100. I attempted to phone the company about this but never managed to get through to an actual person. After this I did the typical thing and ignored it (terrible decision, I know), I recieved a barage of debt collection letters which I also ignored. 

I have also returned to look at the signage in the car park and it is, as seems to be the case, very poor - 3 hours max stay or £100 fine in large letters, and everything else in very small print, only readable if you get very close to the sign. 

So, my main question is: as I did overstay the 3 hours and I don't really have any defence for this, do I select the option to admit to part of the amount claimed for, £100, and contest the rest? Or should I just attempt to contest the whole thing?

Thanks so much!

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

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

Reggie79

Hiya,

The issue date of the claim form is the 13th of November and I filed Acknowledgment of Service on 27/11. Does it give me 30 days from the claim date or from the date I filed?

Coupon-mad

After this I did the typical thing and ignored it (terrible decision, I know), I received a barage of debt collection letters which I also ignored. 

Not a terrible decision at all!  We would have advised you to totally ignore the £170 demands.

Nor do you owe £100.  Defend the claim in full.

Please show us the Particulars of Claim but cover your VRM.

KeithP

Reggie79 said:

The issue date of the claim form is the 13th of November and I filed Acknowledgment of Service on 27/11. Does it give me 30 days from the claim date or from the date I filed?

With a Claim Issue Date of 13th November, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 18th December 2023 to file your Defence.

That's well over a week away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence but please don't leave 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'.

Reggie79

Hi both, thanks already for your kind words and advice. I am planning to get the bulk of the defence paper work written this weekend so I will have a week to tweak it as needed. 

I've attached a picture of the particulars of the claim.

Coupon-mad

Is that date 18/4 the day BEFORE the event?

Reggie79

Yes, the date of the event was 19/04!

Coupon-mad

Right - so just go see what other people put with their exact same UKPC claims filed in-house (NOT DCB LEGAL CLAIMS) in November.

Reggie79

Do I just search in the thread to find that?
And should I use the fact they're trying to claim interest from before I was issued the ticket as one of my points?

Umkomaas

Reggie79 said:

1. Do I just search in the thread to find that?
2. And should I use the fact they're trying to claim interest from before I was issued the ticket as one of my points?

1. Yes, on this forum. This is a fairly new phenomenon since UKPC started issuing their own court claims (last month maybe). Forum regular @Castle first spotted it, find posts by @Castle and read some of his recent ones: should get you in the right place. 

2. Yes, you use every opportunity to undermine their claim against you.