Urgent Notice of Discontinuance (N279) from PE today :) Still need to go to the hearing tomorrow?

Smashy79

I guess that means I - sort of - won?

However, if the hearing is tomorrow, should I still attend court? Would rather not as I can then take my pops to hospital. I haven't received any confirmation from the court yet.

For anyone interested... In November 2023 (yes, 2023) I parked in a carpark run by PE, and stayed for 15 minutes attempting to pay before going to a root canal appointment. This involved things like trying different cards, running into the dentist's to see if they owned it, complaining on a contact form on the ridiculous Evology app that wasn't taking payment.
I ended up moving the car to a free supermarket carpark but still got a letter from PE demanding money.

I came on here and followed the instructions (thank you thank you thank you to the people who have put in so much time and effort to prepare the rest of us), and over the last year received a bunch of emails from them threatening court.

I had my mediation court hearing last November. In my witness statement I did not cite any other examples of court cases, stating that although I could copy and paste example cases from online sites, I didn't fully understand them and asked the judge in the witness statement to consider the case on its own merits (a lawyer friend advised me to do that based on the sheer volume of cases judges see citing the same examples - so I think I got lucky here). Although she could not rule in my favour as it was a mediation appointment, she openly stated that were she in the final hearing, she would. Her opinion as a contract law specialist was that although there is a 10-minute reasonable amount of time window, this isn't a law and not a maximum. She said that I had clearly stated why I was there for 17 minutes, provided evidence as to why I was there (letter from the dentist confirming I was there for 90 minutes for a root canal), and that I hadn't used the carpark for the purpose I intended to.

PE's lawyer (PE did not attend) approached me before the case was about to start to ask me to make an offer. I said £2.50, which was what I would have paid HAD I stayed intentionally for 15 minutes. They refused.

I received a letter from them last week making an offer for me to pay "only" £70, which I ignored. And then today I have received an Urgent Notice of Discontinuance email from PE with the N279 attached.

Pretty happy with that, but my only concern is whether or not I still need to attend court tomorrow anyway to be safe. The courts haven't confirmed anything.

Key learns for me from this:

• Stick to your guns if you're right.
• Follow the instructions on here. Read them carefully.
• No matter what, don't listen to anything PE say to you. They are scammers, cheats, and just after people's money. What a monumental waste of legal resources.
• I may not have cited case examples in my witness statement as directed here, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't too. Read them as you may understand them better than I did..
• Again, read the stuff here carefully. Although it can be overwhelming, unless something has changed very recently, everything you need is here. Really it is!

Gr1pr

Is dcb legal involved   ?  ( on behalf of PE  )

Please post a redacted picture of the NOD below , with issue date,  presumably the court date is 17th January  ?

Did you counter claim or require costs to be paid to you due to the late discontinuance  

Phone your local court ASAP to check if the hearing has been vacated and tell us if it has or hasn't 

Smashy79

Thanks for the response

I don't think so. The solicitor is Jayne Leonard who is listed as an employee. 
I didn't counter claim, no, nor ask for costs to be paid to me. 
Local court are a pain. it's a voicemail service.
However, I did notice that they sent the email for this to the enquiries email at Birmingham County Court and not the hearing email address. 
So I'm not sure it will be picked up...

Smashy79

Ah never mind. They confirmed it's been vacated, so hurray! 

Coupon-mad

Smashy79 said:

Ah never mind. They confirmed it's been vacated, so hurray! 

Brilliant news. You won!

ANOTHER PARKINGEYE ONE BITES THE DUST!

If you were out of pocket for costs... this is an unreasonably late discontinuance and you could email to claim the costs due to PE's 'wholly unreasonable conduct' because they've  known since the Directions/Mediation short hearing that they had no prospects of success and should have discontinued then.