UPDATED - Dispute Resolution Hearing - An Outcome

Le_Kirk

Your witness statement needs to back up and support, with evidence, what you put in your defence.  Ignore the "oh, judge the defendant is cheating by getting help" rubbish that lots of claimants seem to use these days.  When one claimant put this before a judge, the answer from the judge was "So what!"  If there is anything in their WS that helps you, you can use it but if there is anything wrong, you should call it out.  Concentrate on writing the best WS that helps you.
A couple of recent good WSs are by: -
@Defendant911

@Harry77

Coupon-mad

Their WS is nothing new and they aren't getting wiser.

Everything you have described is a template.  Please don't show it to us.  Instead, search the forum for that sentence about internet forums.  Covered dozens of times! 

Also your Dispute Resolution Hearing IS in front of a Judge, and you need to be all over your case because the aim of these DRHs is to look to end the case now.

Treat this assuming it's your final hearing.

Pcyuljr1

Good afternoon everybody.

I have now been throgh the Dispute Resolution Hearing process for this case and thought others may value some insight in to how it went.

This is purely my thoughts and experience.

All the guides and advice were followed from this forum in relation to content and submissions of Defence and Witness statements. However, it's important to note that all the DCB Legal won't progress to court comments are not accurate, as they did do in my case.

So on the day, the judge rang me and placed me on a call with themselves and the claimant.

The claimant was represented by an associate who had not completed VCS or DCBs previous statements, so I already expected their knowledge of the matter to be minimal.

The Judge had also not fully read over the submission packs and stated she had had a brief look - so don't be expecting them to fully be aware or appreciative of all your painstaking work and research.

It was clear to me from the outset that the Judge had little patience for this case and wished for it to be resolved as soon as possible - certainly within the 30 minutes allocated to the call.

The first stage was allowing the claimant to provide a settlement fee.

The 'debt' was £710. They offered £640 as a settlement amount. The Judge expressed some surprise at this figure, I obviously declined, so on we moved.

The claimant representative offered a very basic account 'he parked on private land, in front of a clear sign, three times.'

Based on the Judge's tone, I could tell this wasn't the time to get into the deep case law as per the witness statements. So I stuck to the three key parts of my argument from the very start 1) They haven't proven it's private land 2) They haven't shown proof of authority to manage parking on that land 3) The signage wasn't of a standard to satisfy a contractual responsibitlity.

And here is how I got to my victory.

The claimant had provided the incorrect land registry map (as an exhibit) in relation to where I parked and provided an inaccurate sign as an exhibit (i.e. an image of a sign that wasn't actually present, just a standard template sign).

I pointed this out, along with my arguments. The Judge put it to the claimant - who was unable to answer the queries as he knew little about the actual details of the case.

Due to this, the Judge claimed no evidence had been offered by the claimant and dismissed the case.

A victory!

But it is important to note that I won on a technicality due to shoddy prep by VCS/DCB Legal - not due to the case law and precedents. The Judge appeared disinterested in that aspect, nor wanted to get into the real detail of it all.

The incorrect documents being submitted by the claimant was looked upon poorly by the Judge and she was then more than willing to dismiss the claim based on this.

My opinion is that the level of detail submitted in the defence and witness statements was not touched upon in my case and that the Judge was looking for an easy and quick way to dismiss the claim - probably appreciating that £710 charged for 3 parking tickets was obscene.

My hearing did not descend into a great battle of legal wit and knowledge, with my superior case law driving me to a win - instead the claimant had just submitted the wrong exhibits so I won.

More than happy to win after 14 months of hassle. But it was a relief more than anything.

Happy to assist by answering any questions about the process.

(Thanks to all but specifically to @Coupon-mad for her assistance and guidance with some pertinent case law.)

Gr1pr

Well done 

Clearly with the total claimed being over the £600 threshold then that is more likely why the claimant ( not DCB legal. ) continued to the actual hearing after the fee was paid ( where the Claimant we employed a third party advocate. )

The discontinued cases tend to be one PCN ( or sometimes two. ) under the £600 threshold, so typically £300 or less. 

The rest of the account and those errors are not surprising really 

Nice feedback and account, a loss for DCB Legal and their client VCS 

1505grandad

Well done.

"However, it's important to note that all the DCB Legal won't progress to court comments are now shown as incorrect - they did do in my case."

However @Umkomaas already predicted this back in May.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80805693/#Comment_80805693

"DCB Legal usually discontinue ...... for single tickets.  £700 worth might be a different matter, and you should plan on it going to the wire. Don't fall asleep on it. VCS are particularly loathsome in chasing their pound of flesh."

Coupon-mad

Well done you!  A win is a win.

All cases are different once they reach a hearing, and in my experience, often the Judge goes off on a tangent and focusses on an issue that the D wasn't anticipating.

The trick at a hearing is to know your case well and be ready to adapt, and you did.

You cut to the main points and spotted and pointed out the issues with the evidence.  Nicely played, based on noting the tone of the Judge on the phone.  Perfect example!

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

P.S.
I've never lost at a hearing but very nearly did once, in a very similar 'no permit' 3-PCN phone hearing case.

It was clearly going pear-shaped within 5 minutes, after the irritated Judge announced that he "knew the car park, went there weekly for meetings and the signs are large, so Mrs R, I hope you are not going to try to tell me that the Defendant's case rests on signage..."

Cue the Claimant's turn to speak (he was their young employee, not a rep) and you could hear the sneer in his voice as he launched into taking the Judge to "the image on page 175" (yes...) of the massive bundle.

The Judge lapped it up from them until I said, slightly unsure because I could only rely on the mishmash of unordered pages that the D had emailed me and he wasn't sitting next to me at my house: "errr Judge, we don't have 175 pages from the Claimant".

The Judge firstly tried to blame me because I sounded uncertain, but he let the D speak, who confirmed "the bundle arrived by post and there's definitely only 110 pages here, Judge".

Case dismissed and the Judge tore the young lad a new one.  I think it was a DCB Legal case and they'd sent the shortened bundle, so I felt a bit sorry for the lad. But only a tiny bit!  100% win rate was preserved.

Point being:

Never underestimate the ability of a roboclaim parking DRA to muck a case up.  Well done again!

  

Johnersh

I've never met a lawyer who complained about how they won... They're all wins.  And the op may not have deployed case law, but putting a party to proof that they can support the claim most certainly is an application of the law and court rules, so no need to play down that achievement.