Letter of claim - BW legal

weary_toaster

Morning, wonderful people.

I received a PCN last autumn. Particulars were that I was in the car with my two children, my eldest was 11, I pulled up outside a Mcdonalds, and she went in to put an order in. I then went and parked in a small car park. The one and only machine in the car park was out of order. I spent some time attempting to use the app, the details of which were stuck to the side of the machine but I could not get it to go through. As this point I abandoned my efforts to park there, crossed the road to collect my daughter, changed the order from eat in to takeaway, collected the food, returned to the car and left. The PCN was issued with a stay of a shade over 15 minutes. I am entirely comfortable that I entered the car park with the means and intention to pay, and attempted to, and that when it became apparent that they had not provided the means to I left as quickly as I could.

I appealed to Napier parking using a generic reply from the board, which they generically rejected.  I am really grateful for the quality of the advice in the sticky posts with this. I have made an effort to figure out who owns the car park to appeal to directly, but not been successful in figuring it out. It has proceeded to various letters from BW legal and now a letter of claim.

My intention now is to email BW legal directly, with essentially the generic reply from the second post of the newbies thread. I will include a slightly more detailed version of the above in that email. This will mean I will be stating I was driving, but this feels necessary.  I am going to send it to this list of emails:

customerinfo@bwlegal.co.uk
complaints@bwlegal.co.uk
disputeresolution@bwlegal.co.uk
info@bwlegal.co.uk

One at a time until one responds confirming receipt.

If this all sounds ok, great, but if I am doing something wrong please say,

Thank you.

Gr1pr

Personally,  I would not include anything else,  just use the template as is, no admissions,  no explanations,  no blabbing about who was driving either.  Less is more and it wont change the future,  it won't achieve a cancellation,  it's just part of the pre court process,  tick boxes

People seem to want to confess,  but NO COMMENT is the correct stance,  no admissions at this early stage 

I suspect that Napier may own or lease the car park,  or the company they are in bed with  ( DeSavery   ?  )

Coupon-mad

You know now I hope, that you could and should have stayed perfectly legally on the Double Yellow line (or even temporarily in a bay) outside McD's? That's what the street kerbs are for and boarding/alighting a child is exempt activity.

weary_toaster

Thanks both. We were parking to go and eat in, rather than pickup a takeaway. She was just getting an order in whilst I parked.

I have gone with the generic detail free response and then ignore all emails/letters up to this point. I thought I had now reached the stage where I was beginning to set out the key reasons for a hearing as to why I am not paying. The second post in the newbie thread seems to suggest adding the key arguments you will be making for that purpose. It feels to me like this is so black and white that it should not have gone on for the 8 months it has been, I would certainly rather not spend a day at a hearing. I thought with the letter of claim now produced I was now making a case to BW why this is clearly a waste of time that they will not be successful in. Surely therefore a cancellation at this point is a realistic outcome?

Gr1pr

At the moment you are a long way off any hearing,  probably 6 to 12 months away,  assuming they dont discontinue

The lawyers will comply with their clients instructions,  nothing you can say will alter that narrative,  it's an established process,  a pre court requirement,  a court claim comes next,  requiring a defence,  then your witness statement in several months time 

Even if a court claim is issued,  a hearing is not inevitable 

Its an unrealistic assumption,  experience tells us that 99% of these are not discontinued at the LoC stage 

weary_toaster

Thank you @Gr1pr.

I had the time frame completely confused. I thought this was that defence stage. Thank you. I will get it sent.

Best wishes,

Gr1pr

I thought that perhaps you weren't clear on the stage where it's at, it explains why you gave the previous confusing reply,  you are at the pre court Letter of Claim  stage   ( commonly referred to as the LBC stage   )

Your N1SDT claim pack from the CNBC in Northampton will probably arrive in the post in the next few months 

Presumably its Napier Parking and B W Legal 

weary_toaster

Hello. I have had my court claim requiring defence. I have read the 12 steps to do it. They seem really clear. Thank you.

I am just working on my paragraph #3 and wanted to have someone cast their eyes over it if possible. I am struggling with the balance of not providing details not given in the letter of claim, whilst still stressing the ludicrousness of it. I have had several drafts at it but have arrived (without much confidence) at the following:

On the day in question the defendant dropped his daughter off at a McDonalds near the car park, so she could place an eat-in order. He then took his son and parked in the car park. The defendant denies that they were provided with the means to pay for the parking as the car park has just one machine installed and at the time and date stated, it was out of order. The defendant made efforts to pay via the app, but this would not go through. Upon realizing there was no other way to make payment the driver collected his daughter, changed the food order from eat in to takeaway, collected the food which had been ordered, and left. Upon discovery that the claimant was not providing means to make payment, the car could not have been removed from the car park any quicker.

I fully appreciate this may be awful and apologize for that. Any feedback would be gratefully received.

Thank you.

Coupon-mad

What's the Issue Date top right?

Show us the POC please.

Very easy to defend using the template but you may want to wait as I will be shortening it this week and changing the advice to tell people to put the defence in in MCOL not by email. 

weary_toaster

Thank you for replying.

The issue date is July 3rd.

Particulars of claim are:



I am very happy to wait but also happy with the template. Whatever you guys think is the best route. From what you have put in the dropbox my deadline for MCOL is the 22nd so I have time.

Thank you again for producing such invaluable resources for fighting these things.

Coupon-mad

Wait because I'm changing the advice within days then I'm off on holiday.