DCB Legal court hearing in two days – getting worried now!

Car1980

You still need to email your WS statement to the court, DCB Legal and Excel today. By all means include a note about your medical issues.

At least Excel can't say they haven't received it, only that it was late.

Coupon-mad

Not to Excel though. Only to DCB Legal & the local court and I think the OP has done that.

Take with you, printed copies of your evidence and the judgment by HHJ Pema explaining why he refused to overturn a similar Excel case on appeal.  That's a persuasive refusal with reasons and it's about the SAME issue, same Claimant.

Take a memory stick and device to play the video by Lynda Eagan showing the fault with these machines (not caused by drivers).

DO NOT take this; it's not about the rain:

I also provided links to the historical weather data, and will be taking printouts showing rainfall and 21kph wind with gusts of 32kph. The rainfall data doesn’t look particularly heavy, but the wind meant that the Parking Pay Station screen was being showered with raindrops.

Like I said:

Change your whole stance to VERY much blame the machine and say the term was VOID FOR IMPOSSIBILITY and out of your control. You were prevented from entering your VRM.

The contract was 'impossible to perform'.

Use the word impossible and say that their machine 'frustrated the contract'.

Also state that the C obtained the payment it sought for the hours parked; there was no loss and this inflated charge is an unrecoverable penalty.

REFER TO HHJ PEMA'S JUDGMENT.

Excel are the ones being frivolous and they know their case is hopeless.

Video demonstrating the machine fault is here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdeln2ly1z0o.amp

takeaway_trumpet

Well, luck wasn't on my side today. The Judge wouldn't accept the HHJ Pema appeal rejection, saying she says she didn't know anything about that particular case, despite having the photo of the Order. So frustrating.

I wasn't allowed to use the IPC from 2024 as the incident was before then.

The Judge also wasn't interested that the machine frustrated the contract, and said I should've read the sign.

The Judge wasn't sympathetic when I said the bit about the Claimant obtaining payment for hours parked and the inflated charge being an unrecoverable penalty.

At least the Judge didn't award the appearance fee for their representative...

Is there any point appealing?

Gr1pr

Probably not 

I believe that  It would cost you money to obtain a transcript of the hearing from an authorised company,  possibly money to appeal it,  no matter how it goes, and I believe that any appeal would have to state something about where the judge erred in law,  so specific grounds,  not just because you dont like and dont agree with the outcome 

It could be costly and open up a can of worms 

But 

I suggest that you wait for further advice about it,  because the grace period is 30 days to pay their lawyers,  in full, the amount that the judge decided on in that hearing,  at the end   ( I assume that it was around £212  ?  )

takeaway_trumpet

Thanks @Gr1pr. And another day off work I suppose. 

The Judge appeared to be happy with the fact that despite years of driving and paying for parking at meters without reading signs, that a contract term on a sign can be enforced, despite me obsessively trying to get this touch screen to work in the rain, and eventually giving up trying to get the second letter entered. I didn't want to stand there reading a sign in the rain, and it didn't feel like I then should ring a helpdesk to inform them. Excel's complaint is that they need the number plate in order for their backend systems to function properly, so I suppose I am guilty of those damages. Just feels really unfair, which is why I suppose the IPC Code was improved.

It was about £280 I think.

Gr1pr

The joint code still has many problems,  which is why we are lobbying MPs and signing petitions to try to get the Private Parking Bill 2019, up and running with the mandatory MHCLG CoP to be finalised and implemented by the government,  in order for the industry to finally be regulated,  which should have happened years ago before your case even started 

Its worth mentioning that coupon mad is involved with the steering group trying to get mandatory regulation in place 

Please help if you can,  if not done already 

Coupon-mad

takeaway_trumpet said:

Thanks @Gr1pr. And another day off work I suppose. 

The Judge appeared to be happy with the fact that despite years of driving and paying for parking at meters without reading signs, that a contract term on a sign can be enforced, despite me obsessively trying to get this touch screen to work in the rain, and eventually giving up trying to get the second letter entered. I didn't want to stand there reading a sign in the rain, and it didn't feel like I then should ring a helpdesk to inform them. Excel's complaint is that they need the number plate in order for their backend systems to function properly, so I suppose I am guilty of those damages. Just feels really unfair, which is why I suppose the IPC Code was improved.

It was about £280 I think.

The IPC Code has never 'improved'! 

Your judge was wrong. This was clearly the fault of the machine, a clear frustration of contract.

But there's no scope to appeal because your defence concentrated on the wrong thing and I don't think you put in any WS evidence, so you were always on the back foot and she only had their WS & evidence to go on.

If you'd come here at the start I think you may have had a different outcome because your defence would have not been about the rain and you'd have put in a decent WS bundle.

Is this that awful female judge in a London circuit who keeps finding against defendants? We've seen appalling decisions from a particular female judge. Did you get her name?

takeaway_trumpet

Hi @Coupon-mad yes you're very probably right there, and thanks again for your attention. Judge Vine it was.

Coupon-mad

I think we've had her do this before.  Clearly got it wrong in her head about parking firms.  She'll learn.

takeaway_trumpet

Not sure if this has happened to anyone else - originally my case was meant to be in Chesterfield, but it got transferred to Derby. I didn't receive any notification of this. Derby say they posted papers out in February, but I've seen neither these nor anything from Chesterfield. The only way I knew the date and time of the hearing was from DCB Legal's comms which still said Chesterfield. I only found out about Derby by ringing the County Court helpline and giving the case number!