Smart Parking/DCB Legal court claim form received (x2)

Hoppingfrog

Sorry for the radio silence - had a heavy few days!

Gr1pr said:

You cannot add to a submitted defence,  so no

But next year,  a few weeks before the hearing date,  you get to submit your Witness Statement plus Exhibits bundle to the court and to dcblegal,  so that is probably what you are inferring to, that point is when you have your say

Think of a defence as , how do you plead   ?  Not guilty 

Tell us why  ?  I will in my Witness Statement or on the stand 

Simplistic I know,  but no comment or not guilty tend to start things off in criminal cases, so as this is a multi stage process,  save it for the appropriate point,  next year,  perhaps in spring or summer 

That makes perfect sense, thank you.

Coupon-mad said:

There is an entire section about WS and evidence stage in post 2 of the NEWBIES thread.

Thank you. There are so many links within that section I always go off on a tangent!

Hoppingfrog

Le_Kirk said:

With an issue date of 25/11/25 and having completed the AoS in a timely manner your defence deadline date is 4.00 p.m. on 29/12/25

With an issue date of 03/12/25 and providing you complete(d) the AoS after 08/12/25 and before 22/12/25 your defence deadline date is 4.00 p.m. on 05/01/26
My wife and I are fighting 2 x parking tickets received over 4 years ago (for 2 separate occasions on the same day)

Is this for two different cars?  If not, how come your wife AND you received PCNs?
Check out the Smart Parking group thread: -

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6642762/smart-parking-claim-via-dcb-legal-group-info-thread/p1

Is it not 14 days from the issue date, and then an additional 14 days after submitting the AoS?

So with an issue date of 25/11, and AoS submitted in a timely manner, defence deadline is 23/12,
and,
with an issue date of 3/12, and AoS submitted in a timely manner (16/12), then defence deadline is 31/12?

I'm more curious than anything else. I want to leave it until the last minute before submitting anything, but don't want to mess things up by doing so

Gr1pr

Service date is 5 days after the issue date,  then it's 14 days after the Service date, making 19 days after the issue date,  but if the AOS stage is completed correctly,  it adds a further 14 days for the defence deadline,  making 33 days after the issue date,  providing that its not a weekend or bank holiday , which makes it the next business day afterwards 

But

Submit the defence when it's ready to go,  there is absolutely no need to delay the final draft, no need to get to the last day , minute or second,  so BEFORE,  definitely not after

Hoppingfrog

Thank you for clarifying that.
I definitely understand and agree with your point. My main aim was to drag it out for as long as possible, for no good reason really, other than I can.
I'll submit my defence at the weekend, and submit my wife's AoS as well.

Gr1pr

The courts will drag it out by months, next year,  so a couple of weeks is neither here nor there,  the current waiting time between mediation and a hearing date is quoted as 6 to 9 months,  it can even be over year

Le_Kirk

On your Claim form you will see this: -

You must send or submit either the completed acknowledgment of service form or 

a defence to the court within 14 days of the date of service. If you send or submit

the acknowledgment of service you must send or submit a defence to the court to arrive

no later than 28 days from the date of service. Date of service is five days after date of issue.

Hoppingfrog

Mediation 1 of 2 just completed,and it wasn't too bad!

I was a little nervous on the run up, but the lady I spoke to was really nice. She'd spoken to Smart Parking prior to the call and they'd given her their defence. They wouldn't give her my defence and instead told her it was something that other people have used 😂 (I did amend the defence template slightly to suit my cases so it wasn't exaclty the same as others 🤣)

She then went on to ask if i'd be prepared to negotiate, to which I replied absolutely not. Smart Parking had offered to reduce the charge to £250, which i refused (Both PCNs are currently £312).

I then stated that as there was no contract formed (lack of signage plays a big part in my cases) there is no liability and therefore there will be no negotiation, and that I would be happy for a judge to determine the outcome.

And that was pretty much it.

I have prepared draft witness statements for the 2 cases with the help of AI. I just pasted all the evidence, info and emails etc into Co-Pilot, and it wrote me a full court pack. I just need to go over it with a fine-toothed-comb to make sure everything is accurate and that the cases it uses as references are actually related to my cases 🤔

Mediation number 2 is this time next week 👍️

Gr1pr

Well done

Bear in mind that the mediator is talking to DCB LEGAL, not Smart Parking

Coupon-mad

"I have prepared draft witness statements for the 2 cases with the help of AI."

Bin those drafts immediately.

Why did you do that when we have worked examples with proper case law? …not ghost cases AI makes up or copies from this forum!

You'll be basing your WS on the recent one by @JackR1 like everyone else with non-POFA Smart cases.

Hoppingfrog

Why did you do that when we have worked examples with proper case law? …not ghost cases AI makes up or copies from this forum!

I did it purely to dump all the information and details I have for the tickets and to organise it into date order. I found it to be a much easier way to collate the info rather than messing around on Word and doing it myself. Yes, AI has added a lot of additional info that I need to ignore, or at the very least research to ensure it is or is not relevant, but i genuinely think it is a good base to start a WS.

Thank you for the heads up re: JackR1's WS. It is an interesting read, but as with other WSs, they are all relevant to the individual cases and not to mine. There will be a lot of detail that is relevant, which I need to decipher, and then put it all together and form a legible WS of my own. I'm not used to this and so a lot of the terms, phrases and procedures I read need to be seperately researched in order to understand them. That alone is time consuming, so being self employed working long hours, finding that time is difficult and often done late in the evening when my brain is tired. I want to get this right, but there is so much info I do get overwhelmed and confused.

Hopefully this hasn't come across as rude? I say this with respect to you and every other contributor on here. I am extremely grateful for the time and energy you all must have given to something that gives nothing tangible in return.

Anyway - I got my dates mixed up for the second mediation call - it's today (should happen within the next 2.5 hours!).