Witness statement stage court 4th July HELP re: decision to appeal full/partial EURO Car parks fine

Bellatrix42

So I submitted my witness statement at 3.55pm and at 3.57pm I had an email from QDR with their witness statement! unsurprisingly I’ve had a letter from QDR today offering me the opportunity to settle out of court with a final fee of £120. 

I’m not going to as got this far so want to see it through…..but if I lose on 4th July what is the likely cost??

Not_A_Hope

They can only be awarded the maximum of £255 on their claim form but the judge may discount the fake £70 add on bringing the total to £185. If they are now trying to settle out of court they know they are likely to lose and may also have to pay your costs for attended of about £95.

You have a very good chance of winning this outright so stay firm and don’t be tempted to settle out of court. You were after all doing the right thing.

Bellatrix42

They have just tried calling me as well! I didnt answer and they left a voicemail asking for me to call them....Im not going to!

Bellatrix42

Hi everyone! So I have amazing news!!!! I have just received a 'claimants notice of discontinuance' email from QDR solicitors. My court date should have been this Friday 4th July at 10am!
This last 10 days has been very odd with the following contacts from QDR since I submitted my witness statement:
1. Multiple phone calls from them (all of which I didn't answer) where they were requesting I call them back.
2. Last week I had an email with the offer to 'settle' for £120 by 30th June- I ignored
3. Monday (30th June) they emailed me their statement of costs.
4. Today I received a large package in the post which was a folder full of all their correspondence, claim details, witness statements and defence (from my too). I was partially grateful for this as was saving me printing out all of my bits!
5. 4pm they email me to say they are discontinuing the case.

Do I need to wait for official acknowledgement from the court before I don't turn up on Friday?

I also wanted to say a huge thankyou to all of you who contributed to this thread and support me through this process. I could not have done it without you. 
@Coupon-mad @Not_A_Hope @Car1980

Castle

Did they send a N279.

Bellatrix42

Yes- it was attached as a PDF to the email

Coupon-mad

Bellatrix42 said:

Hi everyone! So I have amazing news!!!! I have just received a 'claimants notice of discontinuance' email from QDR solicitors. My court date should have been this Friday 4th July at 10am!
This last 10 days has been very odd with the following contacts from QDR since I submitted my witness statement:
1. Multiple phone calls from them (all of which I didn't answer) where they were requesting I call them back.
2. Last week I had an email with the offer to 'settle' for £120 by 30th June- I ignored
3. Monday (30th June) they emailed me their statement of costs.
4. Today I received a large package in the post which was a folder full of all their correspondence, claim details, witness statements and defence (from my too). I was partially grateful for this as was saving me printing out all of my bits!
5. 4pm they email me to say they are discontinuing the case.

I also wanted to say a huge thankyou to all of you who contributed to this thread and support me through this process. I could not have done it without you. 

Nicely done! Congrats - you won!

QDR usually continue to hearings. They clearly decided this was a case they were unlikely to win and they were desperate to claw something from you at the eleventh hour.

Or maybe they couldn't get a rep to turn up as everyone's taking holiday. Either way:

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

Car1980

Good news.

But this is such a late discontinuance I think we need to discuss what we're going to write in our letter to the judge about unreasonable behaviour.

How many miles is it from your house to the payment machine and back again? Mileage is 45p a mile.

3 hours spent on your defence, witness statement, and gathering evidence is another £57 @ £19 per hour.

A pile of Euro Car Parks discontinuance printouts would annoy the judge I suspect (!), which is a shame  But we need reference to the discontinuance thread. 

We now of course have Steven Orton v Barclays Bank UK plc

Coupon-mad

Two examples of successfully getting costs after a late discontinuance are linked in the NEWBIES thread. One needed no hearing, the other was sorted out with a costs hearing.