Excel Parking, BW Legal and now what looks like court papers

Redx · 22 November 2016 at 6:22PM

and why are they overworked ?

because the government was promised that POFA2012 and POPLA would bring down the amount of court cases, yet the opposite is true, the PPC,s are misusing the small claims court as enforcers in their sc@ms

Coupon-mad · 19 January 2017 at 10:00PM

Xanthanan wrote: »

Thank you again for quick and very helpful replies.

I have downloaded the POPLA report and the section on keeper liability is very interesting and does touch briefly on hirers of vehicles which is my particular involvement. It makes it pretty clear that the keeper (be it owner, hirer or registered keeper) cannot be 'reasonably presumed' to be the driver with which the parking company has their 'contract' with.

This afternoon I spoke to a rather stressed sounding helpdesk agent for MCOL and they have confirmed that my case has been stayed. However, having read through Lamilad's thread he had similar which all got reversed when the courts re-activated his case after discovering a letter that came from the claimant (or their solicitor) which was supposedly lost (left unopened) in an overworked court system. I realise that could happen to me even a month after the auto-stay so am not holding my breath. Also I realise they could pay the fee to reactivate the case at any time.

I did try to ask if that 'lost letter' scenario could also happen to me but the overworked agent pretty much misunderstood my question twice and then said goodbye, oh well, he certainly sounded like he wanted to get finished for the day!

Did the case proceed, Xanthanan? The defence was solid and covered the bases but I am concerned some other posters think the defence is all they need to do, then rock up at a hearing months later with little paperwork in between. Nope.

Just a reminder to others reading this and facing imminent court hearings NOT to overlook that you must file a Witness Statement and the evidence (typically including signage photos, case law and court transcripts that support the defence, Schedule 4 of the POFA with dates and para 8(2)f or 9(2)f highlighted, Henry Greenslade's wording from the POPLA Annual Report 2015 about 'Understanding Keeper Liability'..etc.).

Xanthanan · 14 February 2017 at 9:00PM

Apologies for failing to respond, my fault for so blindly assuming I could put it to rest, today the court letter finally arrived. It appears the game is now back afoot and I need to compile the complete defence, respond to the court paperwork and get my head back around a subject I don't have much understanding of.

Firstly, the apologies are in particular for Marktheshark, Redx and Coupon-Mad, all of which deserved far more than my lack of replies, but also to anyone else reading this and wondering what the heck to do. Looks like this thread could be a complete record of the whole process, even though I hoped it was finished with back in November.

So there are two things I need to deal with immediately.

The letter from the courts was NOT sealed and open when delivered through the letterbox. I have no idea if anything is missing, am I best to enquire about the contents with the 'very rushed helpline'? Is there any way this could extend dates or even permanently put the case aside? (is that the right term even?)
Should I enquire if the 'auto-stay' was removed through courts presuming the lost the correspondence or if the client paid the necessary fee?

Also I need to re-read what to do next (my goldfish like memory doesn't help here) and I accept I need to get my finger out with that.

I have now completed the DQ form with the exception of the mediation question (A1) and I presume it is better (and viewed in a more positive light) if you agree to mediation, even if the mediation fails to reach an agreement.

The next hassle will be to get it photocopied (I work from home so no copier) and send copies to Excel and BW legal.

Coupon-mad · 15 February 2017 at 2:38AM

No to Mediation, every time. You probably need to re-read bargepole's posts as linked under 'Small Claim?' in the NEWBIES thread because he explains the stages an the paperwork and which boxes to tick. NOT Mediation!

You only need to send a copy to BW Legal and the Court (BW Legal acting for Exxcel means you don't have to deal with Excel as well).

Xanthanan · 15 February 2017 at 1:25PM

Understood, thank you for the response, will sort this evening and do some further re-reading

Xanthanan · 17 February 2017 at 6:25PM

I finally managed to speak to the MCOL helpline today and they confirmed that nothing was missing from the unsealed letter, what they sent is what I received.

When asked why the case should have been stayed in October and then magically revived over three months later the agent said that the claimant (BW Legal I presume) had sent a list of claims (mine included) within the original timeframe and it was somehow 'missed' by the courts.

They were asked to provide evidence that the letter was sent and apparently they did. Anyone can fake a document to be honest and in my opinion it wouldn't have been beyond them to do that. What needs to be seen is the original letter received by the court (hopefully stamped with a 'received by' date) and that is the only undisputed proof that could be trusted.

However without the court releasing that stamped document as evidence I couldn't prove it myself, merely speculate. Is it worth pursuing?

Xanthanan · 15 March 2017 at 2:26AM

Continuing to build my defence pack with evidence and a WS that's growing by the day. I have had allocation to Bradford CC confirmed but no further letters about dates or other stuff yet.

I PM'd Lamilad earlier as he had a similar case and I read he is keen to help out, my real worry is the personal organisation and paperwork side of being in the court which he can help me with. I don't want to drop the ball procedurally or with bad paperwork when I have what looks like a good case otherwise.

Coupon-mad · 15 March 2017 at 3:38PM

Hopefully Lamilad may be able to assist in some way.

Lamilad · 15 March 2017 at 8:44PM

Xanthanan wrote: »

I PM'd Lamilad earlier as he had a similar case and I read he is keen to help out, my real worry is the personal organisation and paperwork side of being in the court which he can help me with. I don't want to drop the ball procedurally or with bad paperwork when I have what looks like a good case otherwise.

I wouldn't worry too much about this particular aspect. Yes, it's important to present things in an organised fashion but you don't need to go out spending a fortune on expensive stationary.

It's more important to know where everything is so you can grab it quickly if you need it.

Present your paginated bundle in a file (basic ring binder or similar) and use numbered dividers to separate the various docs.

Include an index page at the front like the one I used:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/34qrh62gz7jb277/Court%20Bundle%20Index%20%284%29.docx?dl=0

You should number every page in the file sequentially, from no. 1 right through to whatever the last page is. So you can say 'here you'll find on page 66 [a picture of Simon Renshaw-Smith being bludgeoned to death by Lamilad]'

Basically, You want your file to be easy to navigate and easy for the judge to follow.

Xanthanan · 15 March 2017 at 9:02PM

Thanks both, your advice is very reassuring and I must owe the contents of a micro brewery, a small vineyard and the local greasy spoon's tea urn (pick refreshment of your choice) to all of the people who have got me this far.

Last night I made up a nice walkthrough of POF and how it applied to my case as a handy guide to refer to (and it helped me actually understand the flow). I was very proud of it even though it was only in a notepad document, however, saving it would have been a good idea as I went to bed late and woke up to a locked up PC this morning... Oh dear, I left it all day but it didn't come back!...

It should be good practice to repeat the exercise later tonight (after some TV) and this time in MS Word for better production values and a chance of it being saved in a crash

Excel Parking, BW Legal and now what looks like court papers

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