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    • Hearing held today in court. I attended in person and Evri had an advocate attend on their behalf to defend their position that my contract is with Packlink and not with them. I also provided a copy of Evri's terms and conditions which explains that a contract is entered into when a parcel is sent with Evri. The judge pointed this out to the Advocate and agreed there is a contract between me and Evri under the Ts and Cs. The judge explained that while Packlink are responsible for organising the delivery of the item, it is Evri who are responsible for handling the goods and delivering them, and therefor Evri has a responsibility to handle the goods with reasonable care and skill. So am pleased to say the judge found in my favour. Hearing lasted about 75mins. Evri has been ordered to make payment within 21 days. Also nice to meet @jk2054 in person.
    • Good morning,    I just wanted to update you on the situation.    I have visits piling up with my current employment and they need doing before I finish at the end of this month.  I am moving to Wiltshire in 3 weeks for a new job helping care homes with their Dementia patients. I tried to work it out and at a guess I will be doing about 20-25,000 miles a year. So need a vehicle that can cope with that mileage, my old car would have done it easy but 🤷‍♂️ I have taken out a loan and got a friend to find me a reliable car that can cope with the miles and hasn't been written off in the past.   I phoned Adrian flux to see if I could use the last months insurance on a new car I have bought, the girl I spoke to phoned Markerstudy and asked them but they said no, my new car doesn't have any modifications.    I had an email from someone who saw one of my appeals for information, they live near the site of the accident and know a nearby farmer who has a security camera at his entrance that catches the traffic and specifically registration plates as he has been robbed before. They said they would reach out for me and see if he still has the data. Unfortunately it wont catch the scene of the crash.   The Police phoned me and said they were closing the report I made, even if they found footage of the vehicle at the time I said the actual incident would be my word vs theirs.  My first response was I am sure google maps would show that they turned around at that location which would verify my version of events, but upon reflection I do understand, I have seen people doing make up with both hands while driving, eating from a bowl steering with their knees and veering all over the place. I am sure some of these people go off the road and claim that someone forced them off.    Markerstudy phoned me yesterday to say that my car is now at Copart, the £80 tank of Vpower diesel was emptied on entry to the site for safety reasons, which I get but it sucks.  It is awaiting being assessed and shouldn't be too long, which is a relief.  I am really glad things do not seem to be going the way of the other stories and they seem to moving quickly.   However I was informed that my car was a structural write off before I bought it - this destroyed me, I was almost sick.  and this is going to affect any offer of money - after hearing the first statement this didn't affect me.   They need to wait for the assessor to check it over but it is highly likely to be written off and the maximum they can offer is £2300.  I was desperate for a car as I was working for an agency at the time, no work no pay, and did not do a vehicle check because I didn't know about them.  The seller did not tell me that it had been structurally written off, he told me that it had the front wing damaged while parked and was repaired at an approved repairer.  Markerstudy records state that it was sold at auction, no record of repair at an approved repairer.  I bought it bank transfer with hand written receipt.    It gets worse.    It turns out my airbags should of gone off. For some reason they are not working. I think we can figure out why.  If I had hit that car head on and had no airbags.    Some good news.    I can arrange a time with Copart to go and take my stereo equipment and any personal items that are left in the car only. I cant live without music and need quality sound, my speakers and amps are Hertz and JLaudio, (no I am not a boy racer with booming subs, I am an audiophile on a budget) I was really worried I wouldn't get them back so this is a huge relief for me. It is stuff I have built up over years of saving and collecting. Everything to do with the vehicle and mods I have declared need to stay to be assessed.   The accident has gone as a fault on my record, I have to remove 2 years NCB which means I still have some to declare which is good.  So it appears at this point that it may be resolved quickly, not in the way I was hoping, but not as bad as I presumed it was going to be based upon that tow truck drivers attitude and behaviour and the horror stories I read.   I am not going to buy the car back and try to make money with all the parts on it, I don't have the time or energy.   I may need an xray on my back and neck.  The whole situation has left me feeling physically sick, drained and I need it done.   The lesson learnt from this  -  My conscience is 100% clear, my attitude to safety and strong sense of personal responsibility - A rated tyres even if on credit card, brake fluid flush every year, regular checks of pads and discs, bushes etc, made avoiding what I believed to be a certain broadside collision possible.   Get a dashcam (searching now for the best I can afford at the moment)  -  Research your insurance company before you buy  -  Pay for total car check before you go and see a car and take someone with you if you are not confident in your ability to assess a vehicle.      Thank you to everyone here who volunteers their time, energy and information, it is greatly appreciated.  You helped my sister with some advice a while ago but we weren't able to follow through, she is struggling with long term health conditions and I ended up in hospital for a while with myocarditis, when I got out and remembered it was too late.  I am going to make a donation now, it is not a lot, I wish I could give more, I will try to come back when things are on a more even keel.    Take care
    • It seems the solicitor has got your case listed for this “appeal” but not for the Stat Dec(SD). You need to ensure you can perform your SD on the day. If you are able to make your SD in court, the situation you are in now is more straightforward than if you made your SD via a solicitor. You have been convicted of two offences (and two were dropped) via proceedings of which you were not aware. The way to remedy that is to perform an SD. No appeal is necessary (nor is it available via the magistrates’ court). If you are able to make your SD this is how I see it panning out: You will make your SD to the court. The court must allow you to make it as it will have been made within 21 days of you discovering your convictions. You will then be asked to enter pleas to the four charges again. At this point you should plead not guilty to all four but make the court aware that you will plead guilty to the speeding charges on the condition that the FtP charges are dropped. The prosecutor will be asked whether or not this is agreed. In my opinion the overwhelming likelihood is that it will be. If it is you will be sentenced for the two speeding offences under the normal guidelines. In the unlikely event it is not accepted,  the speeding charges will be withdrawn (they have no evidence you were driving). You have no viable defence to the FtP charges and so should plead guilty. This will mean 12 points and a “totting up” ban (as you have already suffered). You can present an “Exceptional Hardship” argument to try to avoid this (explained below).   Because of this, I don’t see any need to make an argument to ask to have any ban suspended (pending an appeal to the Crown Court) unless and until you are banned again. The only reason I can think the solicitor suggested this is to secure a (Magistrates')  court date. I was surprised when you said you had an appointment so quickly; a date for an SD usually takes longer than that. However, if you can use it to your advantage, all well and good. I can’t comment on the argument that the two speeding offences were committed “on the same occasion” as I don’t have the details. That phrase is not defined anywhere and is a matter for the court to decide. It’s an interesting thought (and only that) that such an argument could equally be made for the two FtP offences. If the requests for driver’s details arrived at your old address at the same time, with the same deadline for reply, it could be argued that you failed to respond to hem both “on the same occasion” (i.e when the 28 days to respond expired) and so should only receive penalty points for one. Hopefully you won’t need to go there. I think you have information about avoiding a “totting up” ban. But here’s the magistrates’ latest guidance on "Exceptional Hardship" (EH) which they refer to: When considering whether there are grounds to reduce or avoid a totting up disqualification the court should have regard to the following: It is for the offender to prove to the civil standard of proof that such grounds exist. Other than very exceptionally, this will require evidence from the offender, and where such evidence is given, it must be sworn. Where it is asserted that hardship would be caused, the court must be satisfied that it is not merely inconvenience, or hardship, but exceptional hardship for which the court must have evidence; Almost every disqualification entails hardship for the person disqualified and their immediate family. This is part of the deterrent objective of the provisions combined with the preventative effect of the order not to drive. If a motorist continues to offend after becoming aware of the risk to their licence of further penalty points, the court can take this circumstance into account. Courts should be cautious before accepting assertions of exceptional hardship without evidence that alternatives (including alternative means of transport) for avoiding exceptional hardship are not viable; Loss of employment will be an inevitable consequence of a driving ban for many people. Evidence that loss of employment would follow from disqualification is not in itself sufficient to demonstrate exceptional hardship; whether or not it does will depend on the circumstances of the offender and the consequences of that loss of employment on the offender and/or others. I must say, I still do not understand what the solicitor means by “As a safeguard we have lodged the appeal and applied to suspend your ban pending appeal due to the time limit for being able to automatically appeal without getting leave of the Judge.” When they speak of “leave of the judge” I assume they mean they have lodged an appeal with the Crown Court. I don’t know what for or why they would do this. It seems to follow on from their explanation of the “totting up” ban. If so, I’m surprised that the Crown Court has accepted an appeal against something that has not yet happened. But as I said, i is no clear to me. Only you can decide whether to employ your solicitor to represent you in court. If it was me I would not because there is nothing he can say that you cannot say yourself. However, I am fairly knowledgeable of the process and confident I can deal with it. That said, I do have a feeling that the solicitor is somewhat “over egging the pudding” by introducing such things as appeals to the Crown Court which, in all honesty, you can deal with if they are required. I can only say that the process you will attempt to employ is by no means unusual and all court users will be familiar with it. I can also say that I have only ever heard of one instance where it was refused. In summary, it is my view that it is very unlikely that your offer to do the deal will be refused. If it is accepted, you may be able to persuade he court that the two speeding offences occurred "on the same occasion" and so should only receive one lot of points. Let me know the details (timings, places, etc) and I'll give you my opinion. Just in case your offer is refused, you should have your EH argument ready. Whether it's worth paying what will amount to many hundreds of pounds to pay someone to see this through is your call.  Let me know if I can help further.    
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    • We have finally managed to obtain the transcript of this case.

      The judge's reasoning is very useful and will certainly be helpful in any other cases relating to third-party rights where the customer has contracted with the courier company by using a broker.
      This is generally speaking the problem with using PackLink who are domiciled in Spain and very conveniently out of reach of the British justice system.

      Frankly I don't think that is any accident.

      One of the points that the judge made was that the customers contract with the broker specifically refers to the courier – and it is clear that the courier knows that they are acting for a third party. There is no need to name the third party. They just have to be recognisably part of a class of person – such as a sender or a recipient of the parcel.

      Please note that a recent case against UPS failed on exactly the same issue with the judge held that the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 did not apply.

      We will be getting that transcript very soon. We will look at it and we will understand how the judge made such catastrophic mistakes. It was a very poor judgement.
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      This is good ethical practice.

      It would be very nice if the parcel delivery companies – including EVRi – practised this kind of thing as well.

       

      OT APPROVED, 365MC637, FAROOQ, EVRi, 12.07.23 (BRENT) - J v4.pdf
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Looking for advice before filling in my ESA50 form


Teej75
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Hi

 

In the past few days i have been gathering info on ATOS and esa to know what to expect and it's pretty scary. I have been ill for 7 years, appealed and won my last tribunal and passed the previous medical.

 

From what i have been reading i don't stand a chance as my condition is undiagnosed so i'm going to struggle to get backup even though i've been through a process with the doctors and hospitals to try and find out what's wrong with me.

 

People a lot worse than me are failing but people with mental health issues apparently don't even register, is this true? I suffer with anxiety and depression due to my health and was even referred to liason pyschiatry a while ago.

 

I'd expect to go onto esa from doing the esa test online, i have episodes where i go dizzy and nearly fall over and severe fatigue and chronic sinusitis plus breathing/cardio difficulties which combined are pretty debilitating and cause severe distress but i have adapted to it and this is partly cause of the benefits i receive, i don't know how well i would cope if it was taken away due to a semmingly brutal and unfair system.

 

My question is whether i should even include anything physical or just focus on the mental health issues, they are intertwined. I'll have to get help from CAB filling in the form anyway but i've seen the way things are used against people and people with mental health issues don't seem to stand a chance otoh how physically sick do you have to be to pass the medical?! Other people in a similar situation to mine are being failed so i'm expecting the worst.

 

I feel like i should include everything as it will be relevant if it comes to appeal and a tribunal, it's gonna take some effort for me to fill out the forms and any extra information. I'm trying to prepare as best i can for what happens next. Thanks in advance,

 

Teej

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I can only give you my personal view. That would be to fill out the form as honestly and fully as you can. There's plenty of space and you can always add further sheets if you wish. Forget what others have experienced and don't try to complete the form in a way you might think the DWP or ATOS might prefer. This is about you. If you fill it out as accurately as you can and then fail your WCA you still have an honest document. IF (and it can be a big 'if') you fail then you should appeal. Once the appeal goes to the Tribunal, one of the documents the panel will read closely is your ESA50. It would be silly to then spout a whole load of things at the Tribunal that didn't appear on your ESA50.

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Thanks. That's my thinking but the atos documentaries i've watched and accounts i've read seem to imply that if you can breathe you are fit for work! I just don't want to give them ammunition to fail me cause i can lift my hands above my head. :|

 

Is it really that black and white or have things been improved? It seems like what you say has very little bearing on the assessment or it will be used against you but everything i include in the form will be important in any future appeal so best to include everything i suppose.

 

Teej

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:Teej75:

 

Written by :leemack: there's a guide to completing the first part of an ESA50 among the stickies on the first page of this forum. Rethink's site has a guide to coping with the questions about cognition and mental health, together with some tips about getting supporting evidence.

 

Conditions, diagnosed or not, are irrelevant to awards of employment and support allowance. Important bit is how fatigue, anxiety, depression or symptoms of whatever, compromise your ability to work. Include everything. If necessary use extra sheets of paper (headed up with your national insurance number) and staple them to the ESA50.

 

Tis my personal opinion that most work capability assessments aren't worth the paper they're printed on. At the same time, it's worth noting that currently, 42% of employment and support allowance appellants are successful at tribunal.

 

Best wishes, Margaret.

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You need to include everything on your form. Don't just apply on the basis of mental health - apply also on the basis of the undiagnosed condition(s) too.

 

Thanks. I know i should i'm just worried about failing it and what comes next as i've been there before. :!:

 

It was some advice i was given but i thought mental health issues were been pretty much ignored by Atos so i'd be worse off all round...

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:Teej75:

 

Written by :leemack: there's a guide to completing the first part of an ESA50 among the stickies on the first page of this forum. Rethink's site has a guide to coping with the questions about cognition and mental health, together with some tips about getting supporting evidence.

 

Conditions, diagnosed or not, are irrelevant to awards of employment and support allowance. Important bit is how fatigue, anxiety, depression or symptoms of whatever, compromise your ability to work. Include everything. If necessary use extra sheets of paper (headed up with your national insurance number) and staple them to the ESA50.

 

Tis my personal opinion that most work capability assessments aren't worth the paper they're printed on. At the same time, it's worth noting that currently, 42% of employment and support allowance appellants are successful at tribunal.

 

Best wishes, Margaret.

Margaret, thanks. I was worried cause i thought the assessment rate was lower so for 6 months would have been difficult, that was a real concern for me. Thanks for the info anyway, i've been in touch with rethink and they will help me.

 

I hope the system is being improved, seems like a lot of people are falling through the cracks. Thanks again for all your replies. :-)

 

Teej75

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What's the best thing to do then? Get help from CAB? I'm doing it next week but i'll need help filling in the form either way. My main concern with the physical is i've hard a real hard time in the past getting doctors to recognise my health issues, some even attributing them to mental health but they are not. :mad2:

 

I'll have to be going to the GP for sick notes if i fail cause i will be appealing. I'd rather do everything i can to avoid this but it seems like a forgone conclusion...:roll:

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  • 4 weeks later...
Yes, get help from someone who fills in these forms.

 

Thanks Nystagmite. It turns out i didn't need to fill it in, spoke to Atos to let them know i was having trouble getting help with the form. The sent me an appointment anyway and when i spoke to them again they said i could bring the form with me which is good. They also said i can take medical records with me and a someone can come in with me to take notes.

 

I raised my concerns about the severity of the process and they said people will post their negative experiences but then i read The People’s Review of the Work Capability Assessment (google it). The report says send it to your local mp so if you think it's worth bringing to their attention then send it, i'm sending it to my MP but it paints quite a different picture!

 

My advice is to get as much help as you can going into this. Speak to Atos, make sure you prepare as ell as you can and don't take any crap! They're trying to trample over peoples rights and it's not on. :-x

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I would suggest that anything said by ATOS should be confirmed in writing. As for not having a completed form, smells like stinky fish when ATOS says bring it along. To me this has the feeling of a tramline assessment. Yes / No answers. I doubt very much any assessor would pay any attention to anything you brought in that relates to medical information.

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  • 3 months later...

Thanks Zonker. In triplicate i reckon! I had the assessment recently and got 0 points but i think i messed up on the answers as i tried to fit my issues with the ones in the form using the indicators. Doing this on the day with a health condition is not ideal but i had no choice. I think i would have failed whatever and expected to go to appeal while claiming assessment rate ESA but today i received an email from Benefits and Work today saying ESA will be stopped altogether while awaiting the tribunal, unbelievable if true. :mad2:

 

Anyway sorry for the delay in replying, had a lot on my mind with all this. I think everyone needs to contact their local mp cause putting sick and disabled people in such impossible circumstances has to be challenged. Cheers,

 

Teej.

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