The pages in the pdf are not very good quality as I photographed them for my own use, if you require better quality I will take some tomorrow when I see him next Thanks mike Court Summons1.pdf

Thank you Andy, I felt I was in the right place as the post, although as a result of parking, it was primarily about the format of a Magistrates Court Summons (signature/stamp)and Appealing. I thought legal would have been the more appropriate place to post. Thanks Mike

Is an unsigned & unstamped Magistrates Court Summons legal. A semi literate friend of mine went to court on the wrong date (too late) to defend a parking ticket summons. When he told me about this later that day he had all the paperwork with him and it is blank as far as to who issued it, it is on headed paper with the Court address and telephone numbers, case number, his name and address, date of birth, that is it, nothing else. I have gone round in circles for 4 days trying to find out for sure if this summons meets the criteria required as he will appeal if he has a chance to reverse or cancel the MASSIVE fine & costs of over £850.... yes EIGHT HUNDRED + for breaking down on double yellow lines. The actual charge was :-Allowed a motor vehicle ................... to wait on a road, namely ............. when waiting was prohibited. It all started when his car was broken down and he was waiting for a tow and told a Warden as much and showed him all the oil that had been dumped by his car on the road. The warden still issued the ticket, unfortunately my friend ate it (his passive protest). His car was subsequently towed away with the aid of a friend. Can anyone give advice on the required format of a summons please. Thanks in advance Mike

I received a letter dated March 26 2014 from Restons re Arrow Global saying if I did not pay them £xxxx by April 9 2014 they would issue a county courticon Summons. I immediately wrote back requesting a copy of the Contract and informing them that the debt was disputed, they bounced it back in a letter dated April 01 2014 saying it needed a signature, I added to my typed signature, a digital signatureicon and returned it. Having received nothing from them, I wrote to them again on April 10 2014 again requesting a copy of the Contract. The next thing I received was a Claim Form from Northampton County Court dated 17 APR 2014 which I received on the 23rd of April. The Particulars of Claim were:- The Claimant claims payment of the overdue balance due from the Defendant(s) under a contract between the Defendant(s) and Egg dated on or about 09/02/2005 and assigned to the Claimant on 28/02/2013 in the sum of £xxxxx Particulars a/c no:- xxxxxxx DATE ITEM VALUE 07/03/2014 Default Balance xxxxxxx Post Refrl Cr NIL TOTAL xxxxx I then received one of my letters back again attached to a letter from Restons dated April 25th 2014 again stating that it was unsigned. I wrote back on 2nd May 2014 returning the letter and enclosing in my reply a request for true copy of my credit agreement pursuant to s.77/78 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 enclosing a cheque for £1. They wrote back saying they could not process my request as the cheque should be made payable to Arrow Global (despite Arrow Global stating in a letter that all payments must be made to Restons). I wrote another letter to Restons on 14th May requesting documents mentioned in the statement of case under CPR 31.14, requesting: - 1. Contract , 2 Default Notice, 3 A copy of the deed of assignment from the Original Creditor. I informed them that I required them in order to file my defence on the 20th May. I received nothing back by May 20th so I filed an embarrassed defence. I received a letter from Restons dated May 20 2014 again returning my cheque for £1. I also received another letter dated May 20 2014 stating :- We acknowledge receipt of your recent request, made pursuant of to CPR 31.14. CPR 31.14 (1) states:- “A party may inspect documents mentioned in – (a) a statement of case; (b) a witness statement; © a witness summary; or (d) an affidavit” The documents you have requested are not “mentioned” in our Particulars of Claim and therefore CPR 31.14(1) does not apply. Now to me in the Particulars of Claim they mentioned a Contract between me and Egg, they mention a Default Balance, they mention the assignment to the Claimant BUT gave the date when they assigned the account from Arrow Global to Arrow Global not when it was claimed by Arrow Global to have been assigned to them by Egg. Restons wrote to me again in a letter dated June 02 2014 enclosing the first 2 pages of the Agreement with Egg but no Terms and Conditions, some arrears notices and statements from Egg. They said that as they have now we have given you further details of your account could you confirm you are willing to withdraw your defence. Please complete the Form N9A and return it by 16 June 2014. My belief is that in relation to the Particulars of Claim that the documents I requested from Restons are mentioned, and my CPR 31.14 request has not been remotely fulfilled in that :- (a) I have only received the first 2 pages of an agreement, this does not constitute a contract ... so no Contract received (b) that Restons must supply me with a copy of the Deed of Assignment from Egg to Arrow Global as that is what is inferred in the Particulars of Claim (I believe they are trying to mislead the Court) .. . no Deed of Assignment received © as they mention in the Particulars of Claim a Default Balance then the must supply a copy of the Notice of Default ..... not received Observations and comments are welcomed and How should I reply to Restons please ?

Sorry the formatting went wrong and could not seem to be able to get it to come out correctly, I have now re-posted and it seems OK

Restons have been stalling to say the least, I have taken a few days putting this all together and now time is very tight for me to reply to them, I need some feedback quickly please. In 2005 I borrowed £20k+ from Egg and made all my repayments on time, I had a mutually agreed payment holiday for a short period at the end of 2006. In 2009 I got into financial difficulties I telephoned Egg in July to ask if I could arrange lower repayments for the loan and for a couple of credit cards that I had with them. I told them that I could not afford to pay the full amount for the upcoming payments on all 3 accounts and be sure of paying my mortgage, so any arrangement had to be effective immediately. It was agreed to cut the payments by half with immediate affect, the person that I spoke to said that the “original” payments may be debited as it was short notice and advised me to cancel the direct debits, if any money was drawn down then any payments taken would be reversed immediately. I stipulated that if any payment was debited and not immediately reversed that they would have to cease all and any debits until they came back to me and we could then reach a new lower agreement as I could otherwise be financially embarrassed. This was agreed but I was assured that any debit would be reversed immediately if it happened. The new payments were due to start in the middle of the August to give me a breathing space but the main payment of over £400 was debited the next day and despite the assurances it was not immediately refunded, having not refunded the money they took 3 weeks later the “new” debits for the credit cards, the refund was made after the next payment had been due, it was actually refunded 6 days after the first of the new payments were taken for the credit cards. As a result of not having an even remotely quick refund I had cancelled all direct debits to Egg, somehow they got new direct debits set up for the cards but not for the loan. It took many months to get the payments stopped. Egg never came back to me with a revised plan. Despite this Egg proceeded to request payments for the “outstanding balance” on the loan warning me that they may take action against me and gave a Current balance to pay, which was incorrect. They never issued a Notice of Default. They did send me occasional account statements. I wrote to Egg requesting a copy of the Contracts at the beginning of September 2009, at the beginning of September they wrote back enclosing a mostly illegible reduced sized copy (presumably from a microfiche) of the Loan Agreement and totally different Terms and Conditions from the original, it was not even remotely similar. I received a letter from Arrow Global (on Arrow Global headed notepaper) dated 25th June 2011 claiming :- YOUR EGG LOAN HAD BEEN ASSIGNED BY EGG BANKING PLC TO BRITANNICA RECOVERIES S.A.R.L, ACTING IN THE NAME AND ON BEHALF OF ITS COMPARTMENT ARROW (“BRITANNICA-ARROW”). ARROW GLOBAL RECEIVABLES MANAGEMENT LIMITED (”AGRML”) IS THE ACTING AGENT FOR BRITANNICA-ARROW IN RELATION TO THE RECOVERY OF YOUR DEBT. EGG LOAN ACCOUNT NUMBER XXXXX. NOTICE OF ASSIGNMENT We advise you that Egg Banking PLC has assigned all of its respective rights, title and interest in respect of the above referenced account (including the right to receive payment of the outstanding balance) to Britannica-Arrow, effective 10 May 2011. It went on to state that I should address all payments and correspondence to Wescot Credit Services. I duly wrote to Wescot two times asking for a copy of the Contract, they dropped the case. Similar happened with the next four DCA / solicitors over the next 3 years. In that time:- (a) Arrow Global in December 2011 sent me a more legible reduced sized copy of the Loan Agreement with different Terms and Conditions than Egg had sent, with parts blacked out, still not the original, they must be guessing which one they sent to me in the first place as they do not have the original. (b) I was offered various levels of reduced payments, even a £25 p/month repayment or less. © I received a letter dated 15th of May 2013 telling me Arrow Global had purchased my account from Arrow Global! :- “Arrow Global is writing to let you know that your account was purchased by Arrow Global Limited from Britannica Recoveries S.a.r.l, acting in the name and on behalf of its compartment Arrow (“Britannica-Arrow”) on 28th February 2013”. This was of course on the same headed notepaper that they were previously using and continued using. At the time I thought nothing of it, but….**** I received a letter dated March 26 2014 from Restons re Arrow Global saying if I did not pay them £xxxx by April 9 2014 they would issue a County Court Summons. I immediately wrote back requesting a copy of the Contract and informing them that the debt was disputed, they bounced it back in a letter dated April 01 2014 saying it needed a signature, I added to my typed signature, a digital signature and returned it. Having received nothing from them, I wrote to them again on April 10 2014 again requesting a copy of the Contract. The next thing I received was a Claim Form from Northampton County Court dated 17 APR 2014 which I received on the 23rd of April. The Particulars of Claim were:- The Claimant claims payment of the overdue balance due from the Defendant(s) under a contract between the Defendant(s) and Egg dated on or about 09/02/2005 and assigned to the Claimant on 28/02/2013 in the sum of £xxxxx Particulars a/c no:- xxxxxxx DATE ITEM VALUE 07/03/2014 Default Balance xxxxxxx Post Refrl Cr NIL TOTAL xxxxx I then received one of my letters back again attached to a letter from Restons dated April 25th 2014 again stating that it was unsigned. I wrote back on 2nd May 2014 returning the letter and enclosing in my reply a request for true copy of my credit agreement pursuant to s.77/78 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 enclosing a cheque for £1. They wrote back saying they could not process my request as the cheque should be made payable to Arrow Global. I wrote another letter to Restons on 14th May requesting documents mentioned in the statement of case under CPR 31.14, requesting :- 1. Contract , 2 Default Notice, 3 A copy of the deed of assignment from the Original Creditor. I informed them that I required them in order to file my defence on the 20th May. I received nothing back by May 20th so I filed an embarrassed defence. I received a letter from Restons dated May 20 2014 again returning my cheque for £1. I also received another letter dated May 20 2014 stating: - We acknowledge receipt of your recent request, made pursuant of to CPR 31.14. CPR 31.14 (1) states:- “A party may inspect documents mentioned in – (a) a statement of case; (b) a witness statement; © a witness summary; or (d) an affidavit” The documents you have requested are not “mentioned” in our Particulars of Claim and therefore CPR 31.14(1) does not apply. Now to me in the Particulars of Claim they mentioned a Contract between me and Egg, they mention a Default Balance, they mention the assignment to the Claimant BUT give the date when they assigned the account from Arrow Global to Arrow Global ****. Restons wrote to me again in a letter dated June 02 2014 enclosing the first 2 pages of the Agreement with Egg but no Terms and Conditions, some arrears notices and statements from Egg. They said that as they have now we have given you further details of your account could you confirm you are willing to withdraw your defence. Please complete the Form N9A and return it by 16 June 2014. Thanks for reading this far even if you cannot help me.

Update on everything that has happened since my initial post :- In due course I recieved the Notice to Owner which I replied to (by recorded delivery) just inside the 28 days from service with (stuff that is a duplicate of the above is in italics) :- 2nd February 2012 Re PCN NUMBER: xxxxxxxx Dear Sir/Madam, I wish to challenge the Penalty Charge for the following reasons: - I was not parked; in fact after searching the surrounding area unsuccessfully for a long term parking facility, either a bay or car park, I had not seen any Policemen or anybody that I could recognise as able to assist me in finding parking facilities. As (unusually) there are no signs in the area directing vehicles to parking facilities I had stopped to ask for directions to one or the other at the Arsenal Football Stadium. I had no intention of parking, merely to find parking facilities locally. The car contained on the back seat and behind the front seats a laptop (in its case), other bags and valuables; I certainly would not park a car and leave those items in full view. I was never out of sight of the car for more than a few seconds whilst seeking this information. The sign on the Parking Bay to me seemed ambiguous, it had a blue P for parking with Mon - Fri 10am – 2pm which seemed to indicate parking was allowed between these times, then there was a gap, then Resident permit holders only IS-G, then a line then 9 more lines of information. I found the sign confusing as to the information it was meant to portray, I read it at least a dozen times and said to my brother-in-law that my best interpretation is that parking is allowed between 10am and 2pm but as we needed to park up till after the game we needed to find a better solution. With this in mind I felt safe in trying to find parking information from the Arsenal staff. I had travelled from XXXXXX to XXXXX Airport to pick up my brother-in-law, who had flown from XXXXX to watch his favourite football team play a Home International match. He had only been to the UK once before and that was to watch his team play away to XXXXXX earlier this year. On that occasion local Civil Enforcement Officers and Police assisted me in finding a long term parking place opposite the Stadium. I was hoping I would get the same courtesy at this venue, not the complete opposite. I am 64 years old and try comply with motoring and civil law as much as is humanly possible, I have never had a valid parking ticket in my life despite being a driver since before they were created. I have had no points on my licence since I was a youngster. I try my hardest to live within the law and regulations and most certainly did not feel that I was breaking any laws or regulations or taking any risks by trying to find somewhere to park by the only means possible, i.e. asking the most probable people available that might know the answers. Incidentally, I telephoned the staff on the number given on the ticket, I was unable to find out from them any information on what was and was not allowed in relation to the parking bay and or remaining parked once the ticket was issued (i.e. whether as a ticket had been issued that the car could remain there without further penalty), because of this after a further 2 hours of trying to find somewhere to park locally I drove to West London and parked on a 10 hour meter. We then had to travel back to XXXXX by Underground carrying all the valuables with us, as we did not dare leave them in the car. Once I had got him back to the Stadium (by then gone 6pm) I then had to carry the valuables back to the car on the Underground on my own. I then had to travel back to Arsenal in the car to pick him up after the match. This made the whole day that should have been enjoyable for both of us, a nightmare hopefully to be forgotten. In regard to the Sign It was mounted on a post that was leaning back away from the road, much of it was hidden by leaves so that reading it entailed moving back and forth, the top of the sign is at a height of over 3 metres, I would guess close to 4 metres as my car is over 1.5 metres high and the photograph taken from the front of the car only just shows the plate below the sign, the plate itself being way above the top of my car. The combination of all of these factors makes the sign difficult to read to start with. The photographs supplied support these facts, the photograph of the sign has been taken from an angle and at a distance evidently using zoom on the camera to be able to photograph it over the roof of my car, the only position that a clear photograph could be taken from without the leaves obstructing photography. Unfortunately I could not possibly read the sign from this distance and had to read it through the foliage. I quote from Traffic Signs Manual:- Traffic authorities should always remember that the purpose of regulatory signs is to ensure that drivers clearly understand what restrictions or prohibitions are in force. It does appear that the confusion as to my interpretation of the wording of the sign could be because the sign is not as prescribed by the regulations. If the regulations had been correctly implemented then there would have been no room for confusion as there would have been no ambiguity as to the exact meaning of the sign. Neither the top nor the bottom of parts of the sign are permitted variants. For the top part I draw your attention to in the Permit Parking Regulations, which are from Paragraph 7.10 to Paragraph 7.15 it is quite clear to see that the top part of the sign does not comply. For the bottom part I draw your attention to the Traffic Signs Manual 2008 Paragraph 7.41 Roads in the vicinity of a football stadium or similar venue might need parking controls on match days to reserve road space for resident permit holders. Signs for the prohibition of waiting and those that indicate parking conditions will normally make reference to “Match days” or “Event days” and will require authorisation. Additional signs are used to indicate the date of the next match or event. There were no additional signs anywhere in the vicinity of the Stadium. Incidentally the whole sign must be as prescribed, any non prescribed part of that sign must be formally authorised in writing: - Paragraph 2.1 All traffic signs placed on a highway or on a road to which the public has access (right of passage in Scotland), as defined in section 142 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and amended by the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, must be either prescribed by Regulations or authorised by the Secretary of State for Transport (for installations in England), the Department for Regional Development (Northern Ireland), the Scottish Executive or the Welsh Assembly Government as appropriate. Care should be taken to ensure that signs are used only as prescribed in the Regulations, and in accordance with any relevant directions, and that no non-prescribed sign is used unless it has been formally authorized in writing. Failure to do so may leave an authority open to litigation, or make a traffic regulation order unenforceable. Please, if this challenge is not accepted, could you supply me by return or within 7 days copies of the authorisation in writing by the Secretary of State for Transport for each part of the sign, also a copy of the Traffic Regulation Order that is relevant to this parking bay. I must also state at this point that I have taken legal advice and if this case should proceed to adjudication then I will attend probably with my legal advisor and will likely be seeking costs for us both should I be successful, i.e. the cost of my travelling from XXXXXX and for my time, plus his and costs and charges, this I am advised would probably be granted as I have gone to great lengths to show that I had no intention of breaking any regulations and that I was merely trying to find somewhere to park safely and have pointed out many of the shortcomings that will be used as part of my evidence. Yours sincerely I used the colour to emphasize that part of the letter, they replied with a Charge Certificate for £195 saying basically I had not replied in any way (see attached). I was happy to sit out the time limit of 56 days before contacting them (or the Court if they tried to collect) so that they would be out of time. Then yesterday out of the blue I recieved a letter cancelling the ticket (good job I sent the letter recorded), the reason given had little or nothing to do with my letter, they obviously wanted to avoid admitting that their sign was not a permitted variant as that would have opened flood gates for people wanting their money back. (see attached) So it obviously pays to be diligent, make sure that all signage meets the regulations in every aspect, if it does not you have a good chance of winning through if you persevere. The links to the regs are given in an earlier post. Good luck all

A quick update, full details to follow, probably over the weekend, ticket has just been cancelled , it sometimes pays to be diligent

Hi again Jamberson, I have not mentioned a a Local Contravention Order and cannot speak on behalf of Scooby Doo69. All direct references I have made have been in regard to Road Signs and Permitted Variants, this is what I thought you were refering to when you said "What's one of those??" in post 6, as the quote in post 6 (from Scooby Doo69) did not show when I viewed my thread until today for some reason.

Hi Jamberson The PDF is here http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publication...chapter-03.pdf as per my last post

Hi Scooby Doo69 There will have to be an local order in place, that will be a local thing. The road markings and signs have to comply with National regulations (which are contained in The Traffic Sign Manual) as well for the parking place to be legitimate. For those that are interested the part of the manual relating to signs can be downloaded at http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/traffic-signs-manual/traffic-signs-manual-chapter-03.pdf The complete manual is at http://www.dft.gov.uk/publications/traffic-signs-manual/ . The answer to Jamberson's question can also be found in the manual, just do a search within the PDF for Permitted Variant.

According to the ticket I was "parked" from 12:35 to 12:39 (so according to them if you work out the minimums & maximums between 3 mins 2 secs and 4 mins 58 secs), I do not know what they use to time "the offence".

Hi green_and_mean, Please try again, I have updated the photo

After getting up in the early hours of the morning and driving for over 8 hours across Britain to pick my Brother-in-Law up from an International flight and then onto and through London, I was shattered and desperately looking for a place to park up for the rest of the day. I had a chest and sinus infection plus a stinking cold, so I did not want to go to London but the plans had been made months before, he had never been to London and only speaks a little English and he had come to watch his favourite English team play an International match. At no time was I out of sight of the car for more than a few seconds but I did not notice anyone prowling around it or taking photos. I did not notice the parking ticket till after I returned to the Stadium after a fruitless search after following the suggestions the staff had given me. On the Parking Sign post I had noticed a little sign earlier, below the restrictions sign, giving a telephone number for the football club where match information was obtainable. It was when I walked around the car to get the number that I first noticed the Parking Ticket. It was tucked down below dashboard level so could not be seen from inside the car. I asked my Brother-in-Law if he had seen it, he said yes and that he had thought I had seen it being put there. He thought it was just a leaflet and had not bothered to mention it. The Challenge letter that I sent gives a lot more information:- Dear Sir/Madam, I wish to challenge the Penalty Charge for the following reasons: - I was not parked; in fact after searching the surrounding area unsuccessfully for a long term parking facility, either a bay or car park, I had not seen any Policemen or anybody that I could recognise as able to assist me in finding parking facilities. As (unusually) there are no signs in the area directing vehicles to parking facilities I had stopped to ask for directions to one or the other at the XXXXX Football Stadium. I had no intention of parking, merely to find parking facilities locally. The car contained on the back seat and behind the front seats a laptop (in its case), other bags and valuables, I certainly would not park a car and leave those items in full view. I was never out of sight of the car for more than a few seconds whilst seeking this information. The sign on the Parking Bay to me seemed ambiguous, it had a blue P for parking (none of the other signs that I could see in the area had the blue P), with Mon - Fri 10am – 2pm which seemed to indicate parking was allowed between these times, then there was a gap, then Resident permit holders only IS-G (I have no idea what this means), then a line then 9 more lines of information some of which seemed contradictory, and certainly confusing, I read the sign at least a dozen times and said to my brother-in-law that my best interpretation is that parking is allowed between 10am and 2pm but as we needed to park up till after the game we needed to find a better solution. With this in mind I felt safe in trying to find parking information from the XXXXX staff. I had travelled from XXXXX to XXXXX Airport to pick up my brother-in-law, who had flown from XXXXX to watch his favourite football team play a Home International match. As such I had most of his luggage in the boot and some on the back seat. He had only been to the UK once before and that was to watch his team play away to XXXXX earlier this year. On that occasion local Civil Enforcement Officers and Police assisted me in finding a long term parking place opposite the Stadium. I am 64 years old and try comply with motoring and civil law as much as is humanly possible, I have never had a valid parking ticket in my life despite being a driver since before they were created. I have had no points on my licence since I was a youngster. I try my hardest to live within the law and regulations and most certainly did not feel that I was breaking any laws or regulations or taking any risks by trying to find somewhere to park by the only means possible, i.e. asking the most probable people available that might know the answers. Incidentally, I telephoned the staff on the number given on the ticket, I was unable to find out from them any information on what was and was not allowed in relation to the parking bay and or remaining parked once the ticket was issued (i.e. whether as a ticket had been issued that the car could remain there without further penalty), because of this after a further 2 hours of trying to find somewhere to park locally I drove to West London and parked on a 10 hour meter. We then had to travel back to XXXXX by Underground carrying all the valuables with us, as we did not dare leave them in the car. Once I had got him back to the Stadium (by then gone 6pm) I then had to carry the valuables back to the car on the Underground on my own. I then had to travel back to XXXXX in the car to pick him up after the match. This made the whole day that should have been enjoyable for both of us, a nightmare hopefully to be forgotten. Finally, it does appear that the confusion as to my interpretation of the wording of the sign could be because the sign does not appear to be as prescribed by the regulations. Yours sincerely Their reply was :- They replied to:- the sign does not appear to be as prescribed by the regulations with “The time plate does meet statutory requirements….” I believe even if “the time plate” is ok, it is only part of a sign and the whole sign has to comply. To me the sign seemed confusing because of the layout at the time I was there, now I can see its intended purpose, but I was exhausted, also the sign was very high up (well over 3 metres high) which did not help. To me after studying The Traffic Sign Manual the sign both top and bottom parts are not Permitted Variants of Diagrams. A Re the top part of the sign :- On all permitted variants of Diagrams for Permit Holder Parking (see Diagram 660 and variants) the sign is either exclusively for Permit Holders only, or the Restriction is placed first with the Restriction times below, or there is a dividing line in-between the sections. This sign is completely the opposite. B Re the lower part of the sign The Traffic Sign Manual states :- 7.41 Roads in the vicinity of a football stadium or similar venue might need parking controls on match days to reserve road space for resident permit holders. Signs for the prohibition of waiting and those that indicate parking conditions will normally make reference to “Match days” or “Event days” and will require authorisation. Additional signs are used to indicate the date of the next match or event. In certain areas, the signs described in para 7.15 might be appropriate. C There were no signs on the post or anywhere in the entire area indicating that there was a match ! Can anyone really knowledgeable about signs and procedures please comment, good or bad. Thanks

I have a bit of a problem regarding timing, mainly down to the court losing my papers and taking too long to set a hearing date that I had requested (nearly 4 months from the date of the first letter). Notice of Allocation to Fast Track of my case was given on August 17th I wrote a letter to the court on September 8th stating that the Claimant had not disclosed (amongst other things) transcripts of telephone conversations with the Claimant although these had been mentioned in my Defence and in court. I hand delivered the letter to the court, I asked what happens next and was told everything will be put on hold until the issue was resolved (as you will see it was not on hold). The court replied to the letter dated September 17th stating that the Judge had responded :- The Defendant may consider an application. I hand delivered an N244 application to the court on September 27th requesting that unless within 14 days the Claimant complied with the directions given by the Judge on August 17th the claim will be struck out. I again referred to the transcript of telephone conversations and also that the Original Agreement was not in the list that was once in their control but they no longer have and failed to disclose when it was last in their control or where it is now. On October 18th the Listing Questionnaire was sent to the court stating that as I was waiting for the outcome of a N244 application that I could not state whether or not an Expert Witness will be required or whether or not Counsel will be presenting the case. Having not heard about a date for the hearing of my N244 application I was getting worried the paperwork had got lost in the post. I telephoned the court on October 25th to find out when it was going to be heard. I was told I had not made an application, I told them that my cheque paying for it had been cashed weeks before. Eventually they came back and said sorry the paperwork had been mislaid and that it would go before a Judge that day. The court replied giving a hearing date for the 30th of December. Here comes the crunch, the Fast Track trial date was already set for 6th of January, this does not give enough time for the Claimant to respond to any decision made by the Judge and me time to respond to any documentation they may produce, or put in a Witness Statement (or file evidence) once I have all the documents together, before the trial. I took some quick legal advice and was told to apply to have the Trial date Vacated, which I did. I got a letter back dated December 21st stating the court will consider vacating the trial at the hearing of December 30th...... On December 30th the Claimant’s solicitor, before we went into the courtroom, stated categorically that the Trial date was not going to be vacated, I said the Judge waould make up his mind in the hearing, she stated again that the Judge was not going to vacate the Trial date.... Hmm she was right....... On December 30th the Judge saw fit to totally ignore that the Claimant had not entered the Original Agreement on the list of documents once held as they had supplied a microfiche copy, but the Claimant was ordered to produce transcripts of telephone conversations before the Trial, and that he was NOT vacating the trial date. This puts me really in the corner, bearing in mind all the delays in getting the N244 hearing are down to the court not me, the hearing should have been months ago. I asked the Judge what would happen if the transcripts were not produced before the trial, he said basically that the Judge at the trial would decide what to do, at the trial. So how do I get my Witness Statement (and Evidence) together if I am not going to have everything I need before the trial, and serve them at least 7 days prior. Is there any way legally that I can challenge the decision not to vacate bearing in mind the time frame (trial in 3 days). Also the Claimant has at the last minute advised me that they have instructed a Barrister, if I can should I try and do the same in the short time left as the sums involved with costs are likely to be over £15,000 ? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help MadMike