Lost in court

tidydriver

I lost in county court today v Parking Eye. Seething! The judge accepted my arguments that the entrance sign was facing the wrong way, the key sign that would have brought the terms to my attention was missing (it was on the site plan), therefore I could not see a sign when I parked. The claimants assertion that I walked past a blue badge holder sign which had the terms and conditions on was dismissed as an argument. The judge spent most of the time badgering the representative of Parking Eye whether he had evidence to dispute my claims. All he had was that there are signs elsewhere that I would have driven past or walked past. No evidence that I did or he couldn't point to a sign that I would have passed while walking to the hotel. But I was never pushed on these points- I had one comment about them and, as the representative was spending ages trying to find evidence that the missing sign was there, the judged announced, 'I've made a decision.' I thought that must mean he'd heard enough of the claimant dithering around and was throwing it out. I had not finished my defence by a long shot. But he agreed that I may have driven past a sign and if I wondered around the car park I would have seen a sign.

To be fair he did throw out the attempted elevated parking charge and put it back to £100 and he wouldn't even listen to their argument about unreasonable conduct by me- just said no.

MrJenkinsEsq

Ah, I'm sorry to hear that 🙁

What else was in your defence besides the signage point, if you don't mind me asking?

Was the sign they say you drove or walked past actually in their witness statement and exhibits, or did the rep just assert it on his feet?

Car1980

Unusual to see a PE at a hearing. Was this cherry-picked no blue badge internal claim?

No entrance signage would need backing up with with the blurb in the single code of practice.

tidydriver

The signage was the defence. They didn't point out a sign that I drove or walked past and neither did the judge (my evidence shows I did not walk past a sign going into the hotel where I parked). It was very generic- 'there are signs in the car park so you must have driven or walked past one'. Their evidence just showed signs in the car park and they had their site plan. But I never got to come back on that. The rep had said himself that the car park was large when trying to defend against one of my points. I was just about to come back with this argument when the judge made a decision. We were in there around 30 mins.

Gr1pr

Was it an in-house Parking Eye claim. ? Or via DCB Legal. ?

tidydriver

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82136032#Comment_82136032

No. They just tried to say that I would have seen the blue badge sign as I went past it so that gave notice of the terms and conditions. The judge agreed that any reasonable person would assume that was specific to the disabled parking. The rep was 20 mins late as he went to the wrong court!

Car1980

So was the crux of the claim? An overstay?

tidydriver

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82136032#Comment_82136032

The judge wouldn't let me speak about the entrance sign as he had decided it was facing the wrong way after questioning the rep about it. He wanted to move on

tidydriver

Parking Eye I believe. But sent a representative from LCP

tidydriver

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82136046#Comment_82136046

Not entered registration into tablet

Car1980

Weird. What was the hotel, so we know never to use them.