In answer to the first of my questions above,

the one about me being possibly asked under oath who was the driver on the day,

the incident was now about 14 months ago, and it's difficult to remember.

It could have been me or my wife.

I also have a large family with 5 kids, 3 foster kids and 11 (soon to be 12) grandchildren.

The photo of my car in the original PCN shows it's permanent 'L' plates.

That is because I regularly have other family members driving with me on a provisional license to gain experience.

I remember the occasion, and the fact that we were parked along a wall that turned out to have no warning signs, but which one of us was behind the wheel I cannot say. It may not have even been the same person on the way in as on the way out.

stop fretting...

the judge wont mind if you tell the truth...you don't know it was 14mths ago, cant remember, there are are xx number of people that have access to the car..

Right.

My defence on the day is going to be in three parts:

Part 1 will consist of photographs and diagrams used to illustrate how their signage is inadequate

Part 2 will be my original witness statement, updated

Part 3 will address the appeal decisions included in the Claimant's W.S. and point out why the judgments don't apply directly to this case.

Then there's a couple of pieces of law that it has been suggested I print out and a few things I need to read up on the Parking Pranksters website in case I need them on the day. And job done!

Here is Part 1

Part 3 to follow.

11b) My Plan for Court.pdf

It doesn't matter who it was as long as you state it wasn't you. You cant incriminate other peopel anyways so just say so if asked directly. It is for VCS to PROVE who was driving, they cant assume and cant rely on the couple of bits of outdated case law the IPC parking co's like to trot out.

As for taking stuff along on the day, this all should have been posted to court a fortnight before the hearing date so phone up the court, apologise and get the stuff to them. Send to VCS as well

The lack of your defence is probably the only reason they haven't discontinued already as they can now ask for it to be struck out. you were warned about keeping an eye ion the calendar some time ago. If your defence is chucked out then all you have to rely on is the POFA so make sure you know what it is all about and you will need to rubbish their account ( still allowed as they have to prove their claim) Take copies of the POFA with you so you can pint to the relevant sentences. That is still within the rules.

In answer to the first of my questions above,

the one about me being possibly asked under oath who was the driver on the day,

the incident was now about 14 months ago, and it's difficult to remember.

It could have been me or my wife.

 

I also have a large family with 5 kids, 3 foster kids and 11 (soon to be 12) grandchildren.

The photo of my car in the original PCN shows it's permanent 'L' plates.

That is because I regularly have other family members driving with me on a provisional license to gain experience.

 

I remember the occasion, and the fact that we were parked along a wall that turned out to have no warning signs, but which one of us was behind the wheel I cannot say. It may not have even been the same person on the way in as on the way out.

Thanks for that, ericsbrother. The Witness Statement was submitted to court on the 10th Sept (similar to that shown in post #46) together with a letter to the judge asking if I could send a second one with additional information to address specific arguments made by VCS in their statement. The judge didn't respond to my letter and the consensus of opinion here was that I should air my arguments in court on the day. Btw, the day is tomorrow!

Should I email the photos, diagrams and notes (shown two posts up) to VCS today, before close of business?

At work, some joker has changed my ID badge to read 'The Accused'!

I've been 'bigging it up' at work so, if I lose, the embarrassment will hurt almost as much as paying the £185.

again you must read more on this, if they are saying they are chasing you under the POFA as keeper then they cant add the £60 unicorn food tax because that wasnt on the original invoice and the so called contractual condition allowing them to do this only applies to the driver so make this point and even if you lose the bill will be less.

I would also make it known that they ahvent followed the proper court procedure and as such they can be penalised by 25% of the value of the claim. Again if you are losing it would be worth raising this point but you will need to show all of the things they ahve done wriong so start with POC,

no indication of what claim is for, ie is it a contractual sum or breach of contract? Waht capacity are they claiming? driver or keeper, cant be both. What evidence do they have and so on. So even iof your defence is mostly discounted you can do a lot of damage limitation. Now all of these points should be enough individually but still some judges dont understand the POFA in its entirety so look at the parking pranksters blog and take a copy of a court report published on the 22nd march 2018. That explains the soet of points you need to get across so copy the article and take it with you as well as copy of the POFA itself.

Kitchen sink time!

I've had my day in court. Here is the final and complete defense I used:

Before we went into the courtroom, the solicitor for VCS approached me and offered me a 50% discount to settle. I declined. He asked me what figure I would settle for, which boosted my confidence enormously, so again I declined. Which was a shame, because unfortunately, I lost, spectacularly.

The first problem was that the Judge said I could present no new evidence on the day. I did write to the judge after the witness statements were submitted to ask for the opportunity to submit more evidence in response to VCS's statement, and apparently he wrote back giving me a 2 week window to do so. I didn't receive that letter, so I turned up on the day with my defence pack and that annoyed him because he thought I had disregarded his instructions.

Also, he would only consider evidence relating directly to the 3 line defence I put on the original claim form. My witness statement argued six lines of defence, and my final defence pack added a couple more, so most of that was disregarded too!

After some protestation, he did allow me to read my defence but throughout it, regularly told me he couldn't allow that particular argument.

I also tried the 'Rights to Audience' trick ericsbrother suggested, but the solicitor said he was also a qualified barrister.

So the judge eventually summed up, considering three arguments only:

- whether a contract was formed between me & VCS,

- whether VCS had the correct contract with the land owner,

- whether signage had planning permission.

Contract between me & VCS

He agreed with Beavis.

Said the entrance signage was 'sufficient & prominent'.

Internal signs were to be expected and so should have been noticed.

The internal signs were legible and the driver didn't bother to read them.

Contract with landowner

He believed a contract did exist, even though one wasn't produced, despite a CPR 34.14. I pointed out that the letter of authority included in their witness statement was not signed by the landowner, was printed on VCS letter headed paper and was dated 3 months after the incident, but to no avail.

Planning Permission

He said the burden of proof was on me to show that they were in breach of planning law. He accepted VCS's claim that the signs have deemed consent. And he said that, even if they did breach planning law, it wouldn't stop a contract being formed. He didn't accept that breaching planning law was a criminal act, unless the matter was in enforcement. He would not allow the suggestion that the ANPR cameras also need P.P.

After the hearing, the solicitor said I put up really good arguments and said it seemed more easy than he expected. He didn't actually say so, but he seemed surprised to have won.

I'll post up the actual Judgement when it comes through.

Defendents WS.pdf

Judge lottery sadly

It's hard to believe that any Judge does not know that if lack of PP is illegal

Then it follows that a contract cannot be formed.

Oh I forgot to tell you.

The judge also rejected the POFA argument that by pursuing me as the keeper, VCS should only ask me for the original PCN amount.

But he then reduced the payment to £100 (plus interest) anyway because he didn't accept that VCS had incurred £65 pursuing the payment.

He also didn't allow court and legal fees.

So I did have a part success.

so what did it cost you then?

£108.60.

Before I went in, it stood at £185 and the claimant asked for an extra £50 solicitor's fee and £15(ish) interest. So I could have been out of pocket by as much as £250.00.

The judge would only allow the £100 PCN plus £8.60 interest. So it could have been worse.

I'm still a bit fed up about losing, though.

was it a solicitor? did you ask for their credentials?

I agree with the above comments, your judge didnt do his job properly but unfortunately that happens and unless you state you wnat to appeal there and then on points of law becasue you think the judge has misdirected himself there is no chance you will get anywhere afterwards.

Still cheaper for you than otherwise and it will have cost VCS more than they made to process this.