Claim form for PCN - help with defence

flowercuppatea

Hi,
Please can someone help? Quick question re: my above ongoing claim.
Context/update: mediation took place, unsuccessful. Now today I have received a Notice of transfer of proceedings to my nearest court for allocation.
Not yet been asked for my witness statement.
Is there an 'average time' from this point for when a court date will be allocated, do anyone know? Or is it an unanswerable question because it is dependent on lots of variables? Can it be months from now or is it possible it could be soon?
Thanks.  

Gr1pr

The latter,  ( unanswerable , not soon  ),  more likely to be a letter in a couple of months and a hearing date later this year,  hence why you added unavailable dates to the N180 DQ document 

flowercuppatea

Gr1pr for such a speedy reply. Yes did add dates, but then a work opportunity arose for mid June this year I really can't miss so am happy to hear that it's likely to be a while before anything much may happen.

flowercuppatea

Sorry that was meant to say 'Thanks Gr1pr'

Coupon-mad

flowercuppatea said:

Thanks @Gr1prfor such a speedy reply. Yes did add dates, but then a work opportunity arose for mid June this year I really can't miss so am happy to hear that it's likely to be a while before anything much may happen.

Obviously you've emailed the local court to tell them your unavailable dates though, not just telling us. Sods law they'll pick that week. Don't let it happen.

flowercuppatea

Yes, thanks Coupon-mad, have emailed them at the court enquiries email address and have received an auto reply. I hope they are accommodating. 

Le_Kirk

flowercuppatea said:

Sorry that was meant to say 'Thanks Gr1pr'

@flowercuppatea, you are now a Forumite and,as such, you can edit your own posts.  See the three dots in a circle to the right of your comment.

flowercuppatea

Hi. Quick update on this and some queries please.
Have today received the notice of allocation to the Small Claims Track (Hearing) and now have time to prepare my witness statement. Thankfully it's avoided the dates I was concerned about.
I will go back to the newbies thread and get info and support from there about how to do this WS, however:
1) Does anyone know of any specific examples of WS which cite medical needs I could refer to?
2) At the mediation appt. it became apparent that their accusation of what occurred is different to what they alluded to when turning down my original appeal. Is this an element I can use anywhere... surely it should be clear what they are trying to take me to court for? Or will this just be clear in their WS so irrelevant to labour this point?
3) The court hearing date is in the school holidays, which means my friend who was with me on the day in question (who works in a school) will now be off work that day and could attend court as a witness. Is that something that a) would be allowed considering I have not requested this previously or submitted any statements from her anywhere? b) be useful?
Thanks 

Gr1pr

Coupon-mad

flowercuppatea said:

(DCB legal/ Excel Parking).

I'm completely new to anything like this and feel nervous, bullied, but also that I need to stand up for myself.

The facts: they have me arriving on camera and leaving on camera and this shows a complete time of 6 hours, 14 minutes and 25 seconds. On this it seems simple that there is an overstay of 14m and 25sec.

Mitigating circumstances
I have a medical condition (easily provable) which sometimes results in me being very slow in terms of movement (e.g. walking) and other issues which require for example for me to just sit down for a moment to rest. Both of these were true that day.

Other facts:
car park on arrival was getting full (it is on rough ground and unmarked spaces, a bit of a free for all, and it wasn't so quick to get a decent, safe space. Also, once parked, the nearest car park machine I walked to was broken so I had to go to another machine (with a queue). I entered the correct details to buy a ticket and this was displayed on the dash as required. This meant that the ticket was not able to be bought until 9.44am, 9 minutes after arrival, then I had to walk back to the car, so approx 12 minutes total spent before we even left the car park.

It's also not clear if the 5 minute rule is what they are saying I've done - maybe they are still intent on saying I entered the incorrect details (definitely not true, but I no longer have my ticket.

 I do have previous ones though which show I do know how to do this correctly.) Many of the responses on the trust pilot reviews say this about the carpark, that they've been accused of incorrect info adding when purchasing a ticket.

Coupon-mad said:

Keying errors are also likely to be unrecoverable, as held by HHJ Pema who refused a parking firm's application to appeal a case they'd lost where the person paid but there was a typo, or system failure.

If you search the forum for HHJ Pema you'll find his order refusing an appeal and explaining why there's no case to pursue a paying driver for 'making a typo'.

Just adding all the context above.

You need all of the above as exhibits (including proof of your medical condition and HHJ Pema's order) because Excel cases do proceed to hearings.

Your passenger can also do a shorter, factual WS also signed under a statement of truth.

Yours is a longer WS with exhibits and you should point out that Excel has moved the goalposts since the PCN appeal process, when their accusation appeared to be a 14 minute overstay (denied)  and suddenly at mediation they threw in an accusation of a keying or keypad error (also denied).

A WS and thread to read is by @ellaro9 because he successfully won a counterclaim payout of £1000ish(!) based on not giving a disabled driver enough time on arrival to comply. IIRC it was a case v Excel too, and he provided his Claim number and Judge's name on his thread so that people like you can cite it.

flowercuppatea

Thank you @Coupon-mad, really helpful.