Worth a look

[ploddertom]

Legal battle over 'illegal' car park fines at supermarkets and hospitals could spark refunds for millions of motorists

 

 

• Millions of people given large 'fines' by private firms could be owed a refund
  
• Includes charges issued outside hospitals, train stations and supermarkets
  
• New campaign claims that penalty charge notices breach contract law
  
• Trying to gather 100,000 cases together to go to High Court to end charges
  

Millions of people given extortionate car parking charges outside train stations, NHS hospitals and supermarkets

could be in line for a refund thanks to a new campaign.

 

 

Cambridge law graduate Michael Green, 22, is leading a legal battle to have the 'fines' overturned

in what could be Britain's largest ever group litigation.

 

 

Private companies which run car parks outside some of Britain's biggest store chains

- including Aldi, Lidl, B&Q and PC World

- will often allow customers to park for free, but threaten a large fine for exceeding a certain time limit.

 

 

However, Mr Green believes that these fines are unlawful

- and is trying to gather 100,000 cases together to go to the High Court and prove it.

 

 

If he wins the landmark legal case, then that could open the door for 'at least 10million people' to claim their money back,

and could put a stop to the fines for good.

 

 

 

 

He said: 'These "fines" are not official fines, but instead a matter of private law between two parties.

 

 

'When you park in a car park you are entering into a contract with the company which provides that parking space.

'If you breach a contract then under contract law that company is only allowed to make a claim for the amount they have actually lost.

'Because these spaces are free to park in, I would argue the amount is actually nothing.

 

 

'People take cases like this to the county court fairly regularly,

and judges will often rule that the fines are unenforceable and the charge will be overturned.

 

 

'However, because of the way the county court system works,

this will only settle the claim between one person and one company.

 

 

'By gathering the cases together, and taking it to the High Court, we can set a legal precedent.'

 

 

When a judge made a similar ruling over PPI,

it opened the door to a flood of claims that has seen banks set aside tens of billions of pounds in repayments.

 

 

In the case of PPI, the ruling applied to 90 per cent of policies sold.

Mr Green believes a new ruling could apply to 98 per cent of parking fines handed out by private companies.

 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2807735/Could-millions-parking-fines-overturned-Legal-battle-launched-win-refunds-motorists-hit-illegal-charges-supermarket-hospital-car-parks.html

[caro]

Interesting.

 

Good old daily fail though. What are rouge telephone callers?

 

In the future, he also hope to help fight rouge telephone callers.

[oleg]

I think it must be ppl red faced with anger when making a phone call . . . but then again it could also be ppl who call red phones.

 

Why not ask cagger the old rouge, he's bound to know?

 

I do like your last sentence though: "In the future, he hope [sic] to make pots and pots and yet more pots of money."

 

I will say one thing for the Mail. At least they did write "in the future" and not "going forward". That does my head in. The Mail consistently churns out garbage but in high quality English.

[Tony P]

When a judge made a similar ruling over PPI,

it opened the door to a flood of claims that has seen banks set aside tens of billions of pounds in repayments.

 

 

In the case of PPI, the ruling applied to 90 per cent of policies sold.

Mr Green believes a new ruling could apply to 98 per cent of parking fines handed out by private companies.

 

Most PPI policies were sold by substantial organisations (banks etc) with assets and other ongoing business activities to meet the claims.

 

PPCs are "men" of straw. Any assets (cash) are quickly taken out by the owners, so should the idea work there would be little in the companies to distribute unless the LandOwners /Operators can be included as co-defendants.

 

The main hope is, should the idea succeed, the present PPCs will fail or disappear overnight - and LandOwners/Operators replace them with a better system.

[Tony P]

Over 10,650 have now signed up - and the rate has been markedly increasing the last week or so.