Smart Parking - HELP! have received count court letter - advice greatly appreciated

ChirpyChicken

be7 said:

ChirpyChicken said:

be7 said:

Ok thanks, there seem to be quite a few templates on here, am takng a loof through all of them. Thanks so much all of you.

I think we will try to put together some good points in defence and will contest the claim from DBL, I guess this has to be done on MCOL 

Does anyone know, will there be ANOTHER opportunity to settle before it goes to a court hearing?  As we have got to avoid my wife getting a CCJ judgement and ruining our credit score

thanks again

Stop worrying
why would you settle when Smart will discontinue and it wont even go to a hearing
Even if it did go to a hearing (which it wont), why on earth do you think this will affect your credit file.  **please** dont get confused.  You make it sound that if it did go to a hearing you would lose.
As said this wont go to a hearing so stop wanting to waste your money

Do DBL always discontinue if you challenge? 

Yes with a good defence with the help of this forum they will.

Le_Kirk

be7 said:

Le_Kirk said:

What is the date of issue of the claim form?  If you post that (and ideally a picture of the claim form) we can give you your deadlines and some advice about your defence.

thanks, will post later, tried to post already but as you said , need to redact everything. The date is the 28th Oct, for the two 5 year old parking tickets! (yes , 5 year old) .   Realising now that even if they do not discontinue and it does go to a hearing , even if we do lose, we still have a period to pay, so as to avoid a County Court judgment & credit file problem, we are reassured. Now just trying to put together a defence & fill it in on MCOL

With an issue date of 28/10/25 and providing you complete(d) the AoS after 02/11/25 and before 16/11/25 your defence deadline date is 4.00 p.m. on 01/12/25

be7

Gr1pr said:

Who is the defendant   ?  You or your wife  ?

If she is the defendant,  it's HER DEFENCE,  not yours

Has the defendant completed the AOS stage online on MCOL yet?  If not they need to do it ASAP , in their government gateway account,  on MCOL 

If yes, get on with drafting the defence 

Yes, hers - will use all her info obviously. Just on MCOL now. Basically, we only have the 'it is unfair' argument, that my wife was minutes late and is now being asked to pay £700 for two parking tickets and that the signage was inadequate. Of course, our main hope is they discontinue, if it goes to hearing they may win something, I guess.

Gr1pr

Unfair is not a defence,  so study any recent cases over the last 8 weeks and post her altered and additional paragraphs below so that people here can give some feedback 

The defence should rebut the POC,  especially the ones that the defendant is adapting 

We dont want anyone on MCOL until the final draft is ready and approved  ( once her AOS has been completed to extend the deadline   )

Ps, you still have not posted the redacted pictures you promised,  like this one 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6639018/smart-parking-court-letter-after-4-years#latest

Complete the steps for now, forget about the future,  concentrate on the here and now, no guessing