parking charge - at county court defence stage

mbaxter123 · 22 July 2018 at 5:29PM

1st draft of defence letter - strangely satisfying to write:

IN THE COUNTY COURT
Claim Number: will be inserted

Between

PARKING CHARGE LTD
Claimant
&

ME
Defendant

Defence Statement

I assert that I am not liable to the Claimant for the sum claimed, or any amount at all for the following reasons:
1. The claimant has provided no evidence (other than an ANPR photograph of the front and rear of the vehicle ) that the Defendant was the driver. The defendant avers that the Claimant is therefore limited to pursuing the keeper under the Protection of Freedoms act 2012 or !!!8216;POFA!!!8217;
2. There was no sufficient grace period offered to the Defendant as per the AOS Code of Practice (of which Parking Charge LTD is a member of) recommend a grace period of 10 minutes to read terms and conditions. As there are no adequate signs outside the building, the Defendant had no reason to believe a charge started from the time entered in the car park. The time spent within the car park was 13 minutes and 19 seconds (assuming the ANPR equipment has been properly maintained and serviced)
3. Inadequate signage though-out the car park, advising the entry into a contract therefore no contract was agreed by the Defendant and also using forceful letters to the defendant clearly breaches the AOS Code of Practice !!!8211; heading 9.5 !!!8216;You must not use predatory or misleading tactics to lure drivers into incurring parking charges. Such instances will be viewed as a serious and sanctionable instance of noncompliance and may go to the Professional Conduct Panel!!!8217; The entrance to the car park has a strict one way system that drivers have to follow upon entry forcing the car into the ANPR trap.
4. No authority from the land owner to the Claimant have been sent to the Defendant confirming the legality of the claim and charges. In the absence of strict proof of the land owners authority I submit that the Claimant has no grounds for a case at all and invite the court to strike out the claim.
5. The claim fails to comply with Civil Procedure Rule 16.4 and Practice Direction 16, 7.5-7.5 by failing to provide a copy of the contract details of any agreement by conduct
6. Fails to comply with Practice Direction 22 paragraph 3.1 sets out who may sign a statement of truth, Para 3.10 states !!!8216;a legal representative who signs a statement of truth must sign in his own name and not that of his firm or employer!!!8217;
7. The Claimant is trying to recover additional charges such as legal costs £50.00 and court fees £25.00. The Protection of Freedoms Act (POFA) 2012 does not permit the Claimant to recover a sum greater than the parking charge on the day before a Notice to Keeper was issued. The Claimant cannot recover additional charges. The Defendant also has reasonable belief that the Claimant has not incurred the stated additional costs and is put to strict proof they actually have occurred. As a small claim, the legal costs cannot be recovered and be struck out.

Considering all off the statements above the Defendant requests the case be dismissed

Coupon-mad · 22 July 2018 at 5:32PM

You need a statement of truth, and

Defence Statement

should be

DEFENCE

mbaxter123 · 22 July 2018 at 6:49PM

By Statement of truth do you mean something along the lines of 'the defendant understands all statements to be true' or to that effect

Coupon-mad · 22 July 2018 at 10:51PM

You need to read other defences in the NEWBIES thread; that's why they are there.

System · 23 July 2018 at 6:12AM

In short terms drove into a car park was caught by an anpr camera going in and then exiting approx 13 mins later. In my case i didn't pay for parking at all, we drove in, looked at the board, then drove out.

What would be the explanation for taking 13 minutes to read the board then leave. Was it a particularly large car park or was the board difficult to find?

mbaxter123 · 23 July 2018 at 8:31AM

There was a very large board with minute writing. Not very clear on the actual charges. Then there is a tiny little board next to the ticket machine. If you pay by phone or online its 10 per day but if you pay at the machine its 2 per hour. Its all very confusing.

Coupon-mad · 23 July 2018 at 3:48PM

Good, that's what we wanted you to expand on, in your defence.

mbaxter123 · 11 August 2018 at 10:20AM

Ok All, sorry for the late reply, i've been crazy busy at work...

Thanks for all your help with this by the way,

Anyway here is the final draft of my defence... formatting is different to the actual printed version.

IN THE COUNTY COURT
Claim Number:

Between

PARKING CHARGE LTD
Claimant
&

(MY NAME WHEN THE TIME ARRISES)
Defendant

Defence Statement

I assert that I am not liable to the Claimant for the sum claimed, or any amount at all for the following reasons:

1. The claimant has provided no evidence (other than an ANPR photograph of the front and rear of the vehicle ) that the Defendant was the driver. The defendant avers that the Claimant is therefore limited to pursuing the keeper under the Protection of Freedoms act 2012 or !!!8216;POFA!!!8217;

2. There was no sufficient grace period offered to the Defendant as per the AOS Code of Practice (of which Parking Charge LTD is a member of) recommend a grace period of 10 minutes to read terms and conditions. As there are no adequate signs outside the building, the Defendant had no reason to believe a charge started from the time entered in the car park. The time spent within the car park was 13 minutes and 19 seconds (assuming the ANPR equipment has been properly maintained and serviced)

3. Inadequate signage though-out the car park, advising the entry into a contract therefore no contract was agreed by the Defendant and also using forceful letters to the defendant clearly breaches the AOS Code of Practice !!!8211; heading 9.5 !!!8216;You must not use predatory or misleading tactics to lure drivers into incurring parking charges. Such instances will be viewed as a serious and sanctionable instance of noncompliance and may go to the Professional Conduct Panel!!!8217; The entrance to the car park has a strict one way system that drivers have to follow upon entry forcing the car into the ANPR trap. Once inside the car park, the parking sign is very hard to understand, with parking all day not actually what customers are charged. The parking is charged at £2 per hour which non of the outdoor signage represents.

4. No authority from the land owner to the Claimant have been sent to the Defendant confirming the legality of the claim and charges. In the absence of strict proof of the land owners authority I submit that the Claimant has no grounds for a case at all and invite the court to strike out the claim.

5. The claim fails to comply with Civil Procedure Rule 16.4 and Practice Direction 16, 7.5-7.5 by failing to provide a copy of the contract details of any agreement by conduct

6. Fails to comply with Practice Direction 22 paragraph 3.1 sets out who may sign a statement of truth, Para 3.10 states !!!8216;a legal representative who signs a statement of truth must sign in his own name and not that of his firm or employer!!!8217;

cont...
7. The Claimant is trying to recover additional charges such as legal costs £50.00 and court fees £25.00. The Protection of Freedoms Act (POFA) 2012 does not permit the Claimant to recover a sum greater than the parking charge on the day before a Notice to Keeper was issued. The Claimant cannot recover additional charges. The Defendant also has reasonable belief that the Claimant has not incurred the stated additional costs and is put to strict proof they actually have occurred. As a small claim, the legal costs cannot be recovered and be struck out.

Considering all off the statements above the Defendant requests the case be dismissed

I believe that all of the facts in this defence against BW Legal/Parking Charge LTD in the claim E7DP4F6F to be true 11/08/2018

Signed!!!8230;!!!8230;!!!8230;!!!8230;..

Date!!!8230;!!!8230;!!!8230;!!!8230;!!!8230;.

bargepole · 11 August 2018 at 11:21AM

It still says 'Defence Statement'. The heading should be 'Defence'.

The correct wording for the footer is:

I believe that the facts stated in this Defence are true.
Name
Signature
Date

(Don't mention BWLegal, they are not a party to the case).

And you still haven't mentioned the most important fact, which is that the driver entered the car park, read the signs, and decided to leave without parking. The Judge will be more interested in this fact than anything else.

Also, unless the defendant wasn't driving at the time, I would leave out all that stuff in para.1 about keeper liability. The Judge can ask you in court if you were driving, and if the answer is yes, it just makes you look like a clever !!!! trying to get off on a technicality.

mbaxter123 · 14 August 2018 at 5:30PM

Got it. I will amend tonight. Thanks m

parking charge - at county court defence stage

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