Highview parking taking me to court. I've received a General Form of Judgment or Order.....

Coupon-mad

Series_of_unfortunate_events said:

I'm worried that i'll make a mess of the statement because a lot of what i've read on the forum, I read pages of different threads before i joined, went straight over my head. I have no idea what is relevant to my situation and what is not.

Just read the second post of the NEWBIES thread.

And the fourth post for your ZZPS letter. 

Series_of_unfortunate_events

Hi everyone, I have received an email from DCB Legal saying that their client would be agreeable to £60.00 in full and final settlement of this claim. That upon receipt of the settlement sum of £60.00 they will update the court that the matter is settled etc.

Is this standard?

Series_of_unfortunate_events

I also received this, this morning:

Series_of_unfortunate_events

This is the email i received:

Coupon-mad

OK, so now you know your WS deadline. 

Series_of_unfortunate_events

I'm not at all confident in writing the ws, everything I've read in the forum goes straight over my head. 

What about the email they sent me? 

Johnersh

You've been offered £60 (the original PCN amount) to make this all go away.

That instantly eliminates the dodgy interest amounts, court fees and the £70 that they randomly add on for the pleasure of writing to you. Not too bad. Possibly slightly less than you'd pay if this went to trial and you lost and with none of your time.

So the question then becomes, can you do better? After all, if you go to trial and win, you might pay nothing. They may need to pay you!

You say you remained on site, without buying a ticket in what turned out to be a P&D car park. So, in theory that's you stuffed. However, in practice, you can only agree to contract terms (the sign is a contract) if you see it and know to read it. It follows that in order to defend the claim, that is probably the most likely defence.  If the signs were really obvious and you just forgot after a 15 min "deep & meaningful" chat/argument, it could be harder to defend. I dunno because I wasn't there.

None of us know your circumstances. If you didn't see the signs, it seems likely that you'll need to provide evidence as to why you and objectively other visitors might not be aware of the charges or signs. That's what the witness statement is there for. It's why some forumites revisit the parking area and take photos etc.

In Beavis (a parking eye case) the signs were particularly good, so that wasn't an argument for him. Hence your statement is factual - what you said and did and must be tailored by you to the facts of your case, taking ideas or learning of similar cases with your wider reading.

The claimant statements are often poor and very generic.

Series_of_unfortunate_events

Hi Johnersh, thank you for your comment, I need to apologise for the confusion, the parking for 'this' court letter was free for 3 hours. On previous occasions, using this retsil park I only parked for short periods. This was the first time I'd parked for hours and didn't see the signage. I ended up approximately 20 minutes over the 3hr limit. According to the letter they sent me. 

I've re visited the site to actively look for the signage and took photos but the only thing I can say is the main sign is as you're driving on a curve in the short road that's entering the carpark. There's no way anyone could read that whilst driving safely and having adhd I tend to hyperfocus on navigating the road and safety. I retraced my steps that day after dropping the car off, it was parked infront of Halfords, ironically having a rear and dash camera installed.

When I walked from a2b and back I didn't see any of the signs that day.  On my way to the cafe I didn't notice any parking signage and spent 3 hours catching up on calls, emails and appointments in the cafe. I'm really frustrated with myself because I got a call to from halfords when they'd finished and the lady mentioned that the car park limit was 3 hours. By the time I'd packed up, gotten back over there, gotten a demonstration, paid and left according to the camera, I was over the time limit.

There's alot more to the story involving that car, a real series of unfortunate events. If any of you on here want to read about it let me know. 

Meanwhile this comment:

"You say you remained on site, without buying a ticket in what turned out to be a P&D car park. So, in theory that's you stuffed."

Actually applies to an older car i had. I received a letter on Saturday about not buying a pay and display ticket at a carpark I decided not to stay at, back in 2022.

Thank you for reading and im looking forward to any more comments 

Coupon-mad

You can certainly write a decent WS - you have shown us! This will make a decent start to your WS (after the usual intro paragraphs that you have surely seen everyone else use):

"I've re visited the site to actively look for the signage and took photos but the only thing I can say is the main sign is as you're driving on a curve in the short road that's entering the carpark. There's no way anyone could read that whilst driving safely and having adhd I tend to hyperfocus on navigating the road and safety. I retraced my steps that day after dropping the car off, it was parked in-front of Halfords, ironically having a rear and dash camera installed. When I walked from a2b and back I didn't see any of the signs that day.  On my way to the cafe I didn't notice any parking signage."

If it's a single PCN from Highview, DCB Legal are about to discontinue you know. That email desperately seeming sixty quid is the clue!

Series_of_unfortunate_events

Apologies.... 
What i failed to add, to my last lengthy post, was that when I re visited the car park and re traced my steps from halfords to the cafe; I didn't see the car parking signs because they were very high up on grey poles and not on the route I walked, across the car park, not on the path which would have been the long way around all of the shops.
I crossed safely being cautious to avoid any moving cars. The signs were not eye level. 

I had to consciously look for them, walk up to them effectively walk in the road and take a picture to read it safely. (Which isn't safe)

On a quiet afternoon in December I took a photo of one, i had to park right next to it to safely get the picture. Either from my car windscreen, parked (engine off), or standing in the empty bay next to me...I can't remember which. Also it's zoomed in. 

I'll re visit and get some actual size for accurate perspective.

I am thinking id prefer to pay this £60 to make it go away if it avoids a CCJ, if it goes to court and doesn't go in my favour id have more to pay and still have a CCJ because I wouldn't be able to afford to pay in 30 days.

At this moment I don't know if i can afford to keep the car I've currently got. If somehow I am able to afford to keep my car, wouldn't a CCJ increase my car insurance? (Which would price me out of driving potentially)

If i have no option but to give up my car, am I right in thinking having a CCJ would make it difficult for me to either get or afford car finance and car insurance in the future?

However:

I'm torn because I'm incensed and disgusted at this whole predicament, them not sending me the first notification letter which would have given me the opportunity to pay the £60.00, but claiming that they had done and then all of this time energy and stress for all of this time with a BARRAGE of stressful heavy handed threatening letters with constant inflating charges resulting in me having to jump through hoops for over a year ontop of everything else.

I wrote in my defence a comprehensive summary of my difficult circumstances and wonder if that has something to do with them sending me the email offer perhaps? 

For them to offer me a £60 settlement after putting me through all of this is on the one hand an insult but on the other, if I refuse it I have to go through more of this stress and gamble.... even if I did win I wouldn't be happy until I was compensated which probably wouldn't be much and maybe less because wouldn't refusing to settle within the next few days at £60.00 go against me claiming damages?

Also Jack straws castle... is that a !!!!!! take? I've heard of the strawman but can't remember what it is. It's on a 2do list to look into when I can.

Anyone still reading thank you. I'm sorry if ive been repetitive, I haven't had anyone to talk to about any of this as you can probably tell by the amount I've written.

I've lost track of time again and now the suns coming up. Goodmorning all.