Urgent help required please - County court claim

kop87

Hi all, hoping for some urgent help please. I recieved a county court claim form for almost £1k towards the end of March and submitted an Acknowledgement of service. Unfortunately, I had to spend some time in hospital so I only have until today to provide a defense via the MCOL website. I stupidly ignored the letters that were coming through, however I work at the location and was provided confirmation via email that my vehicle was on the vehicle exemption/"White list" prior to these tickets being issued, which should have prevented the penalties, so I continued to park in the car park and not pay for the tickets. Is there anyone that can help with the defence please?

KeithP

If your Defence filing deadline is today, it is at 4pm today - twenty minutes to go.

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.

kop87

KeithP said:

If your Defence filing deadline is today, it is at 4pm today - twenty minutes to go.

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.

Hi Keith, 

The issue date was 21st March, I acknowledged the service on 9th April which gave me another 14 days to 23rd April. I didn't realise it was until 4PM for which I've missed now, I thought it would be 23:59. I was advised on a parking forum that I'm to email the court first 'ClaimResponses.CNBC@justice.gov.uk' and not provide the defense on the MCOL system, is that correct?

Coupon-mad

Yes that's correct.  Already stated in our Template Defence thread.  Please go there now. Top of the forum.

Grab the Template Defence and bung what you told us in as paragraph 3 to replace my instructions.  Sign & date it & put the right data in the headings.

Job done, once you email it to the right email address. All shown in the Template Defence sticky thread.  No link needed.

kop87

Coupon-mad said:

Yes that's correct.  Already stated in our Template Defence thread.  Please go there now. Top of the forum.

Grab the Template Defence and bung what you told us in as paragraph 3 to replace my instructions.  Sign & date it & put the right data in the headings.

Job done, once you email it to the right email address. All shown in the Template Defence sticky thread.  No link needed.

Ok thanks, I'll do that now. I did recieve a draft copy of a defence from a parking fine facebook group which is similar to the defence template on here but a much condensed version of it. My question is, do the points on this defence template here (apart from #2 and #3) apply to every single county court claim? I don't want to be caught out by putting something on there which I dont understand and possibly isnt true to my case?

Gr1pr

You may not understand everything in the template defence, but only adapt the couple of paragraphs that coupon mad requires, leaving the rest in it, enlightenment can come once its been emailed as an attachment ASAP 

kop87

Gr1pr said:

You may not understand everything in the template defence, but only adapt the couple of paragraphs that coupon mad requires, leaving the rest in it, enlightenment can come once its been emailed as an attachment ASAP 

Ok got it, I'll copy and paste the defence template now into a Word doc, add my bits in and send. Thanks. 

KeithP

kop87 said:

Gr1pr said:

You may not understand everything in the template defence, but only adapt the couple of paragraphs that coupon mad requires, leaving the rest in it, enlightenment can come once its been emailed as an attachment ASAP 

Ok got it, I'll copy and paste the defence template now into a Word doc, add my bits in and send. Thanks. 

You missed a couple of words off the end of that sentence...

         ...add my bits in and send it as a PDF.

Le_Kirk

Did you submit your defence yesterday as a .pdf and receive the auto acknowledgement? 

kop87

So I submitted my defense to my parking claim and received the autoreply acknowledgement.

Part of my defense is that I am employed at the location where I received a parking ticket and that I received confirmation that I was on the vehicle white list / exception list.

Since I filed my defense, the opposing solicitor (DCB Legal) have emailed me directly asking for evidence of my employment.

Do I simply ignore this email request and wait for official court documentation to be sent to me? 

Gr1pr

I dont see a problem with you providing that evidence now instead of a few weeks before the hearing date, with your witness statement bundle 

As you are conducting your own case, you will have to deal with their solicitors and its ALWAYS a good idea to avoid court, they are going to get it at some point, but they may cancel once you send it, they do have a record of discontinuing cases, as seen in the thread by Umkomaas