Letter of claim - BW legal

Gr1pr

Phone them tomorrow morning 

weary_toaster

Thank you.

So same address minus the gsi?

Gr1pr

Personally,  I would phone them and check, so I have no idea why you haven't done so, but the website is below 

https://www.find-court-tribunal.service.gov.uk/courts/birmingham-civil-and-family-justice-centre

weary_toaster

Thank you.

ChirpyChicken

Birminghamcountyhearings@justice.gov.uk
That is the correct one

weary_toaster

Hello. Just to say I had my day at the small claims today and the charge was cancelled.

I just wanted to say a very big thank you. I am grateful for the replies to my questions, but even more so for the effort that has gone into the sticky threads, and that must continuously go into updating them.

Thank you very much.

Gr1pr

Well done, but tell us more details

Another one bites the dust ! ( Napier via B W LEGAL. )

Coupon-mad

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81877849#Comment_81877849

Great news!

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

Tell us more!

How did you feel?

Did they send a rep and did they try to speak to you outside in the waiting room?

What did each party say once in the court room? What did the judge say?

Which point(s) won it?

Did you remember to ask for costs?

weary_toaster

Evening.

Full and honest answer is I found the whole thing very bizarre. Their evidence pack arrived at the last possible window. A lot of the evidence focused on the fact I had used template stuff from here, which when I read it I took to be an attempt to intimidate someone who did not really understand the laws etc.

My key defence was there was one machine and it was not working, and that upon discovery of that I acted reasonably and left promptly. They provided in the evidence pack a list of transactions which showed a window around my arrival when there were no payments, but it was not a big window.

Some days later (very close to the court date) a supplementary evidence pack arrived. The reason for this was that the transactions they had sent across were for the date the notice had been issued rather than infringement date. This new data showed a complete absence of parking machine payments for 40 minutes before my arrival and the rest of the evening. I also noticed that the two evidence packs had different sums that were being claimed. As a result I went into the day feeling quite confident, with what I felt were a very solid set of points to work through.

I have a never been to small claims court before and found the waiting area and security etc quite intimidating. In the waiting room I was approached by the other side and asked to look at some screenshots again of this site, and asked if I had been emailed them. I said I would not be looking at them and the (seemingly quite harassed gentleman) who spoke to me left.

We were called into the room. The judge was extremely polite and reasonable. He explained we would both briefly set out our position. The other side began this by describing what had happened on the date of.. and then gave the date of the notice being issued again. The judge instantly challenged this and was quite frustrated. The guy apologized and said he had only found out he was taking this on 40 minutes ago and he was not familiar with the paperwork. The frustrated judge, pointed out this was not his issue. Eventually a brief case was presented, that I arrived, left and did not pay. I gave my brief summary, I could not pay, I had to collect my daughter, I left promptly. The judge asked if the other side had evidence the machine was working. Their take was they only had a printout of online payments. I knew this to be false and that he had not understood the documents in front of him, but there seemed no advantage to pointing this out. There was a brief conversation around could I have used the app, which I did not have installed. My take, which was accepted, was that I made a brief attempt to use the phoneline but could not get it to go through, and pretty quickly I abandoned this, got my daughter, got in the car and left.

Very, very, early in the whole thing, it felt abundantly clear what direction it was all going in. On two occasions the solicitor(?) apologized to the judge and said he could only work with what was in front of him. He was offered the chance to ask me some questions which he did, but none of the questions seemed in anyway challenging of my position. I had already expressed that the sign said leave immediately if payment did not work, and that I did that the second that I had my daughter back. I was therefore somewhat surprised when one of his questions was "did I see the sign".

The judge ended up ruling prior to me presenting any kind of case. I discussed my (modest) costs and that was that.

Being there put me well outside my comfort zone. I went in with adrenaline racing and determined to win the argument. In the end there really wasn't an argument, and as a result it took me a while after court to calm back down. Reflecting on it over the last 24 hours, I feel genuinely proud that I stood up to what I consider bullying. I took my ringbinder full of letters I have been sent over the last 14 months in with me. This was (I think) a very bog standard case and the communication amounts (in my opinion) to harassment. I (with very significant help from this board) got it cancelled, but I don't think I did a lot in terms of making clear how unfair I think the whole thing is.

I was a little surprised how hard they came after my use of this board in their defense. I have that defence scanned in and am happy to message across if it would be of benefit to any of the experts here. I am not sure if that should have been a surprise or if I should have expected it.

Finally, I do want to reiterate one more time, the sticky threads here are a goldmine of support, and whenever I have put a message on here I have had an expert reply within minutes. I recognise the effort that a small and devoted core group commit here to stand up to bullies and I think you are amazing. Thank you.

Coupon-mad

Wonderful court report to help other newbies, thankyou. Well done again!

Together, we (regulars) and new posters like your good self are winning 99% of the battles, and I am doing my damnedest on the MHCLG Steering Group to try to win the 'war' and open the Government's eyes to the scam. Evil prevails when good men and women do nothing, so you should be proud of your stand.