Please help with skeleton argument for court date in March.

Sillyminkey12 · 19 February at 9:52AM

Hi everyone, I submitted my N244 in Jan and now have a court date of 10 March.

I have pasted my submission below. Hope that’s okay - it’s all sourced from this excellent forum.

I wanted to ask about my skeleton argument. I plan to argue that since the PCN was issued over two years ago I cannot say with confidence that I was the driver of the vehicle on that date. Can anyone help with the language I should use for this or if there is a better argument to use?

Also, I copied in the parking company in my original e mail to the court but did not e mail them separately. I am surprised they have not been in touch to offer to consent to set aside for the fee of £95. Is that normal practice or have I misunderstood? Date of claim was 24 May 24. CEL did not use a solicitor.

And finally, will the court hearing definitely go ahead even if CEL don’t show up?

Thanks so much for you help and sorry for a long post.

Name of court: Civil National Business Centre

Claim No. xxxx

WITNESS STATEMENT OF DEFENDANT

1. I am xxxxxx and I am the Defendant in this matter.

2. This is my supporting statement to my application dated 06 January 2025 requesting to:

a. Set aside the default judgment dated 21 November 2024 as it was not properly served at my current address.

b. Order for the original claim to be dismissed.

c. Order for the Claimant to pay the Defendant £303 as reimbursement for the set aside fee.

DEFAULT JUDGMENT

3. I was the registered keeper of the vehicle at the time of the alleged event.

4. I understand that the Claimant obtained a Default Judgment against me as the Defendant on 21 November 2024. I am aware that the Claimant is Civil Enforcement Ltd and that the assumed claim is in respect of an unpaid Parking Charge Notice (xxxx ) dated 05 December 2022.

5. The claim form was not served at my current address, and I was therefore unaware of the Default County Court Judgment against me until I received correspondence from my credit card company that they had reduced my credit limit by 90%. I investigated further and discovered they had become aware of a default CCJ of £304.16 marked on my credit file.

6. The address on the claim is xxxxx. I moved to my current address xxxxx on 15 September 2023. In support of this, I can provide evidence of my change of address as required, including council tax bills.

7. In addition to the above, it should be highlighted that the integrity and law-abiding intention of the Defendant should be taken into consideration.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

8. I first discovered there was a default County Court Judgment against me when I reviewed correspondence via my xxxx banking app which informed me that my credit limit was to be reduced by 90% on 23rd December 2024.

9. On 23 December 2024, I undertook a review of my credit score via credit reference agency Trans Union where I discovered a CCJ was linked to my name. I note that the judgment is registered to my former address.

10. On 30 December 2024 I contacted the County Court Business Centre to obtain relevant information relating to this default judgment. I received information about the claimant and I paid the fee of £303 to request the judgement be set aside.

11. On 03.01 2025, I contacted the County Court Business Centre to obtain further information relating to this default judgment. I requested and received an email containing the Particulars of the Claim

11. On January 06 2025 I submitted my case in order to set-aside this judgment and fairly present my case.

13. I believe the Claimant has behaved unreasonably in pursuing a claim against me without ensuring they held my correct contact details at the time of the claim. I was therefore denied the opportunity to defend the claim.

14. On that basis, I believe the Claimant has not adhered to Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) 6.9 (3) where they had failed to show due diligence in using an address that the Defendant no longer resides. The Claimant did not take reasonable steps to ascertain the address of my current residence despite having a significant period of time to establish an address. This has led to the claim being incorrectly served to an old address and an irregular judgment.

15. Under CPR 13.2 The court must set aside a judgment entered under part 12 if judgment was wrongly entered. Given that CPR 6.9 (3) was not met, CPR 13.2 applies and the CCJ must be set aside. In the alternative, CPR 13.3 applies due to the circumstances, which represent good reasons to set the CCJ aside, and in view of the fact that the Defendant acted promptly and has good prospects of defending the claim in the event that the court does not strike it out for want of service within 4 months.

16. Under Clause 24.1 C of the BPA Approved Operator Scheme Code of Practice Version 8 (January 2020), “Before serving a Letter Before Claim and prior to the issue of proceedings, Operators must, if no responses have been received to the NTD/NTK/reminder letters, take reasonable endeavours to ensure that the contact details for the person you are writing to are correct.” The Claimant failed to take reasonable endeavours to ascertain my correct current address prior to issuing proceedings and is therefore in breach of the Code of Practice.

17. The Defendant was 'there to be found' for the sake of a 29 pence bulk Experian trace or similar very inexpensive and immediate credit reference agency address check. I would then have been notified of this judgment and could have taken action to prevent it.

18. Given that more than 4 months has passed from issue of proceedings and service of the claim was defective (i.e. it was never served) the Defendant submits that this particular claim is dead and the period for service cannot be extended by this application process. The Defendant has no details of this claim, therefore, if the Claimant believes there is a cause of action then the correct procedure would be to file a claim afresh and to the right address, after furnishing the Defendant with the information required under the pre-action protocol for debt claims, issued this time to the correct address for service for this Defendant, which is xxxx

19. According to publicly available information my circumstances are far from being unique. The industry’s persistent failure to use correct and current addresses results is an unnecessary burden for individuals and the justice system across the country.

20. Furthermore, former Prime Minister May publicly pledged to investigate ‘abuse’ of the CCJ System and so called ‘Credit Clamping’ as reported in the Daily Mail article dated 12 September 2016.

The Right Honourable Sir Oliver Heald on 23 December 2016 "announced a crackdown on unresolved debts which can damage people’s credit ratings without them knowing. The action comes after concerns were raised that companies were issuing claims to consumers using incorrect addresses." The Minister added, "It cannot be right that people who are unaware of debts can see their lives and finances ruined by county court judgments. That in the digital age, we must ensure companies pursuing unpaid debts make every reasonable effort to contact individuals, rather than simply relying on a letter to an old address.”

21. In the alternative, CPR 13.3 applies and there are very good reasons to set aside this exaggerated claim. The Defendant has good prospects of defending a claim, if served with one, but has seen no evidence, basis nor particulars of claim and the Claimant should be required to file afresh, if they believe they have a cause of action.

22. Considering the above, I was unable to defend this claim. I believe that the Default Judgment against me was issued incorrectly and thus should be set aside, and I ask the Court to kindly consider the reimbursement of the fee of £303 from the claimant should this request be successful.

Statement of Truth

I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

Signed xxxx

Date 06.01. 2025