county court defense

puddlejump

I've read the newbie threads, and i've responded to the county court claim via moneyclaim.  I have been working on my defense and have about a week before I need to submit it.

My story in a nutshell.

In july 2022 took my daughter to heathrow airport and we stopped at the McDonalds to eat breakfast before her flight.  We ate (i have the receipt) then left.  2 weeks later I also flew to the states for a month long visit with family.  When i returned i discovered a Parking Charge in the post stating that i stayed for 78 minutes when the allowed was 60 minutes.  No pay & display or barrier.  evidently there were 1 hour signs.  I live 3.5 hours away so I didn't go back to look.  I had already missed the cutoff times for paying a reduced fee (£100 down to £60) and the cut off to appeal.  So i took the wrong advice and decided to ignore it completely.  Then i got a barrage of scary threatening and misleading letters so i did more googling and found all of this site's advice.  But i was too late to appeal or contact McDonalds.  So, i ignored it and hoped they would give up and go away.   So, now MET has taken me to county court.  The claim has jumped to just under £300.  

Do I actually have a defense? or do i go ahead and pay?  this is stressing me out!

Looking at the defense advice, my the particulars of the claim on the county court form simply mentions the date, my registration number and that I contravened the displayed terms of the car park.  I saved all the post that i received, so i have the original parking charge and i know that it was for overstaying by 17 minutes.  Since the county court claim does not mention this, do I?  or Do i defend my very small 17 min overstay and explain that i simply ate food but it took 78 min (busy time of day and a long wait and a chat over hot drinks and i didn't know about the time limit!).  60 minutes is not long when we waited 20 min to receive our food...  

here's my 2 possible paragraph's

5.  The defendant visited the Heathrow McDonalds waited in a long queue to purchase and receive breakfast meals and hot drinks for the defendant and daughter to consume on the premises.   After eating and using the toilet facilities, the defendant left the carpark.  There was no carpark barrier or pay & display system within the carpark and no obvious system to monitor and determine the length of time on the premises.  A Notice to Keeper Parking Charge was issued on in xx July 2022.  Before that notice arrived in the post, the defendant left the country for a month and therefore was unaware of any breach or charge or issue at all and therefore unable appeal or pay within the initial 14 days.  The charge rapidly increased in amount with a never-ending barrage of threatening and misleading letters.

or

5.  The defendant visited the Heathrow McDonalds waited in a long queue to purchase and receive breakfast meals and hot drinks for the defendant and daughter to consume on the premises.   After eating and using the toilet facilities, the defendant left the carpark.  

 i've used the template for all the rest...

i've attached the parking charge and county court claim.

Le_Kirk

Just use the @hharry100 defence that you will find in the template defence thread, put some words explaining that the car was there using the facilities but resist the temptation to do the claimant's job for them by making excuses for something about which you know nothing as it was not detailed in the POC on your claim form,

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Have you filed an Acknowledgment of Service?
If so, upon what date did you do so?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

And by the way, there is no letter 's' in the word defence.  

Not_A_Hope

The fact that CST Law have not bothered to actually state what exactly the breach of terms and conditions was on the court claim can significantly help you. Using the Civil Enforcement Limited v Chan case law quoted in the hharry100 defence has resulted in many claims being struck out by the courts recently.

puddlejump

thanks for thx for the advice.  And spelling correction concerning defence!   I will resist the urge to give extra info.  I’ve already included the cel v chan quote as per hharry100.  Yes. I did the acknowledgment of service on 18/12/23 and plan to submit by Tuesday, which is a bit earlier than I originally thought yesterday.  Thanks to all

Not_A_Hope

Put the first part of your defence on the forum for comment. Don’t need to see all the later standard paragraphs

KeithP

I did ask earlier...

KeithP said:

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

puddlejump

Issue date. 7/12/23. 

KeithP

puddlejump said:

Issue date. 7/12/23. 

puddlejump said:

I did the acknowledgment of service on 18/12/23...

With a Claim Issue Date of 7th December, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 9th January 2024 to file a Defence.

That's just a few days away but plenty of time to produce a Defence.

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'.