Defence helped needed - Received a LOC from Civil National Business Court

rorschach57

I've just received the claimants WS via post. In their evidence they have a photo of the dashboard of no blue badge displayed.

Coupon-mad

Why not just post a full hard copy of everything (in a nice organised and page numbered file)  to the court, or drop it in their secure letterbox over the holiday period if local enough?

UKPC have had their copy from you by email already I assume, so no need to print theirs.

rorschach57

Dropping it locally isn't a bad idea. But in the interest of time, I ended up sending a shortened version of my WS. Removed the exhibits (which are all present in my father's one anyway). Important bits are still there. 

Coupon-mad

Make sure you send the same version to UKPC so they both have the same page numbers.   

rorschach57

Hi,

My hearing is next week so I'm going to start preparing for it. As I said before, the claimant have provided photo evidence of no blue badge displayed in the windscreen. This is the first I've seen of it, as a far as I can remember. I wasn't expecting this so does it harm my chances significantly on winning the case? What could be a valid reason as to why I didn't display it, other than 'I forgot'? 

Can anyone provide any guidance on how best to defend myself? I'm wondering if this is still winnable or a slam dunk loss. 

Gr1pr

Your WS will be limited to 50 pages to save the trees,  it's a well known limit

So it's either reduce it to a maximum of 50 pages in total, or print it yourself and hand deliver it instead, plus email it to the claimants lawyer too 

rorschach57

I've already done that. As I said above I reduced my WS by removing exhibits, so the total came to 50 pages. 

Gr1pr

rorschach57 said:

Hi,

My hearing is next week so I'm going to start preparing for it. As I said before, the claimant have provided photo evidence of no blue badge displayed in the windscreen. This is the first I've seen of it, as a far as I can remember. I wasn't expecting this so does it harm my chances significantly on winning the case? What could be a valid reason as to why I didn't display it, other than 'I forgot'? 

Can anyone provide any guidance on how best to defend myself? I'm wondering if this is still winnable or a slam dunk loss. 

Must have stuck on the previous page , my mistake with my previous reply today 

But to answer your question posed above ( for the last time please   )

You are not defending,  you are not the defendant,  you are a witness,  nothing else 

Your father is the defendant,  his defence is that he did not breach any parking contract,  because he was not the driver 

You may not be allowed to speak,  you are not providing any defence 

Capiche   ?

rorschach57

I know I know . But my father and I will both be present during the hearing. That was my plan anyway. To be able to help him and because I was the driver. But if you're saying I may not be allowed to speak, and that the defence will be he wasn't the driver, should I not be there?

Gr1pr

You can be there,  but it appears that you are witness number 2, so perhaps cannot speak unless spoken too, you dont have the right of audience AFAIK  ( I don't think that you can be a lay rep or mckenzie friend, plus you are not legally qualified,  whereas the claimant may well send a paid for jobbing advocate 

It's a but late to be researching lay representative and Mckenzie friend,  but I believe that a witness cannot be one

He has the right to speak as the defendant,  AFAIK  ( as witness number 1  )

You can be there or not, as a witness,  I would suggest that you prep him as defendant , so help him before going into the courtroom,  you may be cross examined by their advocate or by the judge in the courtroom,  but its not your case,  so you need to finally realise that procedures must be followed, otherwise you could fall foul of the judge 

You are not the conductor here,  you wont be allowed to not follow protocols, you and your father,  especially him, must be guided by the judge,  listening without presumption would be wise

If you had been named as the driver before the court claim   ( as I said previously   ) then you would be defending yourself,  as the named defendant   , so your question would have some validity. The replies here by various people have been telling you that its not your case for 13 months or more  !