Court claim in wife’s name for parking while I was the driver

Zm_lincs

Hi, I’ve read newbie section but would like to clarify something. 

My wife received a Claim form from County Court at Civil National Business Nirthampton for a parking fine which I had paid. I was the driver and made a payment of £8 online which is the maximum fee for the use of parking for 12 hours (late at around 5pm but before I exited the car park at around 7pm). There is no payment machine at the car park and I forgot to pay as soon as I arrived at around 8am in a hurry to catch the train to work. The parking company did not send a PCN but send a reminder letter addressed to my wife who is the keeper) with increased fine and denying a chance of appeal. I emailed them explaining the situation with proof of payment but did not receive a response. After couple of months, DCB legal send a letter addressed to me on the subject on behalf of the parking company. I emailed them explaining the same thing but there was no response. Last week, a County Court form is received in my wife’s name. Also, I’m a regular user of the two car parks of this company as they are close to the train station and another one close to it and I have records of all payments on the payment app. 

The parking company has been exhibiting predatory behaviour since sometime and tried sending few other PCNs (7 in total!) similar to this for late payment but all of them were successfully appealed at POPLA or their appeal process. Some of the PCNs were for non-payment while I’ve made the payment in time and it clearly shows on their payment app. All of them were appealed successfully. I suspect this is why they did not send the PCN for this one so I don’t get a chance to appeal! My argument is that I paid the money in full but there is no way to select a time in the past on their app. They issued this particular PCN at around 10am because there is no APRN at this site. If there was one, they could’ve seen my exit time at 7pm though my parking time on the app shows 5pm to 5am next day.

I’m going to acknowledge the claim today as per advise in the newbie thread and will be sending the defence in a week but my question is that…is there a way now to transfer the claim to my name as I was the driver? Also, what are my chances of a counterclaim for causing unwanted stress and time and money associated with attending a hearing? Can someone also advise, which section of the defence I should mention about the technical limitations of their app, proof of my payment, their lack of communication etc.? Should I send all the evidences along with the defence or at the hearing stage?

Thanks in advance for your response.

Gr1pr

No, is the simple answer 

No it can't be changed to somebody else's name 

No , no exhibits are submitted with a defence 

Save all the technical stuff for her WS in several months time, a few weeks before the hearing 

No additions can be added at the hearing 

No chance of a counter claim based on the details so far in your post above, stress and harassment are a very high bar, plus your wife would need medical proof such as doctors letters etc, the Claimant would have to be seen to be unreasonable, but chasing up alleged debts is standard business practice 

Your wife, the defendant must submit the AOS online on MCOL, but not until after 5 days following the issue date on the claim form, you can assist her but as an adult everything must be done in her name, it's her name on the claim form 

NB, seeing as she was not driving, as its a train station she may have no liability 

Name the location and parking company   (. NCP. ?  )

Post the issue date on the claim form 

Post a picture of the POC on the left of the claim form, but cover up the VRM details 

Zm_lincs

Thanks @Gr1pr - is the court going to ask for WS later or how do I know when to send the WS with all exhibits? 

The location is Peterborough Westgate car park and it’s Parkmaven.
Issue date is 2nd July and the Poc photo attached.

Its not the official train station car park but a private one close to the train station.

Gr1pr

Study the defence template thread in announcements by coupon mad, plus the second post in the newbies sticky thread in announcements too

The 12 steps take the defendant through most of it 

Once the CNBC in Northampton have received the defence and subsequently received the N180 DQ as well, they will finish processing the paperwork and transfer everything to your local nominated civil court for dealing with by that actual court , so perhaps Peterborough unless you have a more local civil court. ?

That local civil court will post a Court order to the defendant which tells her about the bundle etc, so the WS and Exhibits which go to both parties before the court imposed deadline, usually a few weeks before the hearing.  I expect that if it goes all the way. ( Many don't. ) Then that hearing could be in 6 to 12 months time.  DCB Legal discontinue hundreds of claims as seen in the thread by Umkomaas 

The train station is a red herring and not relevant, so not railway land , its nothing to do with the case

As the defendant was not the driver, she may not be liable at all. !

She can do the AOS online, preferably this week, then start drafting her defence 

Bear in mind that you are ONLY the assistant, everything done in her name, she must defend it ( its nothing to do with you from a legal perspective. )

Zm_lincs

Thanks again @Gr1pr. I’m reading the defence thread and planning for AOS submission this week and also drafting the defence for submission by 26th Jul. As I understand, we’ve time till end of July to submit defence?

How long it takes to hear back from the court after defence submission?

Gr1pr

More likely to be 5th August for the deadline, 33 days after the issue date, if that AOS is done this week or before day 19, Keithp will likely add the details 

There is no time limit, expect up to 2 months due to too many claims and backlogs etc, I assume that you meant from the CNBC. ?  Not the local court. ?

Keep checking the claim history on MCOL until they have transferred it to the actual court, it could then be weeks or months before the court order arrives in the post 

KeithP

You have been given good guidance so far but there might be something useful here...

With a Claim Issue Date of 2nd July, you have until Monday 22nd July to file an Acknowledgment of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an Acknowledgment of Service, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 5th August 2024 to file a Defence.

That's over three weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service guidance.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that 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'.

As mentioned by others, everything must be done in the name of the named Defendant.

Zm_lincs

Thanks @Gr1pr and @KeithP

I’ll follow the guidance and will come back with an update. 

Coupon-mad

Zm_lincs said:

I emailed them explaining the situation with proof of payment but did not receive a response. After couple of months, DCB legal send a letter addressed to me on the subject on behalf of the parking company. I emailed them explaining the same thing but there was no response. Last week, a County Court form is received in my wife’s name.

If you are telling us that the C and DCB both knew you were driving, and the latter had written to you and you replied, then in law there is no keeper liability possible.

Your wife has a perfect defence. She cannot be held liable after they knew the name & address of who was driving.

There won't be a hearing anyway. They'll discontinue in 2025.

Zm_lincs

Thanks @Coupon-mad for your response.

Apologies, it was a typo…should be read as ‘DCB sent a letter addressed to my wife’. However, when I emailed both C and DCB, I have clearly mentioned that it was me who parked the car and the payment receipt shows my email address and in all my emails I mentioned my name.

Coupon-mad

Still got those sent emails?  Then they KNOW who was driving and chose to carry on pursuing your wife, the keeper, unlawfully.  

Why didn't she just name you before the court claim arrived? It was on the PCN 'transfer of liability' slip and could have been done by the keeper contacting them with your name & address at any point (pre-claim).

Too late now. It is now - and will be - your wife's claim to defend but no worries, they'll discontinue before the hearing when she poker-faces them and REFUSES to offer any money in the pointless Compulsory Mediation phone call.