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    • 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 them 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.    
    • This must be part of the new tactic from Evri.  They know they are going to lose. They take it to the wire and then don't bother to turn up in order to save themselves costs and of course they don't give a damn about the cost to the British taxpayer and the extra court delays they cause. This is a nasty dishonest company – but rather in line with all of the parcel delivery industry which knows that their insurance requirements are unlawful. They know that their prohibited items are for the most part unfair terms. They know for the most part that a "safe place" is exactly what it means – are not left on somebody's doorstep in full view. They know that obtaining a signature means that they have to show the signature not simply claim that they received a signature. They are making huge profits especially from their unlawful and unenforceable insurance requirement. Although this is less valuable than the PPI scandal, in terms of the number of people who are affected nationwide, PPI pales into insignificance. I hope the paralegals working for Evri are proud of themselves and they tell their families what they have done during the day when they go home.
    • Your PCN does not comply with the Protection of freedoms Act 2012 Schedule 4 Section 9[2][a] (a)specify the vehicle, the relevant land on which it was parked and the period of parking to which the notice relates; The only time on the PCN is 17.14. That is only  a time for there to be a period there would have to be a start and and end time mentioned. of course they do show the ANPR arrival and departures  times but that is not the parking period and their times are on the photographs not on the PCN. They also failed to comply with S.9[2][f] as they omitted to say that they could only pursue the keeper if they complied with the Act. That means that they can only pursue the driver as the keeper cannot be held liable for the charge. As they do not know who was driving and Courts do not accept that the driver and the keeper are the same person they will struggle to win. Especially as so many people are able to legally drive your car and you haven't appealed giving them no indication therefore of who was driving. Small nitpicking point-the date of Infringement was 22/04/2024. They appear to be saying that they can charge an extra amount [up to £70 ] if they have to use a debt collector. You do not have a contract with a debt collector so they cannot add that cost. You paid for four hours so it can only be the 15 minutes they are complaining about. You are entitled to a ten minute minimum grace period at the end of the parking period which would be easier to explain if the car park had been bigger. However if you allow for two minutes to park and two minutes to leave that gives you one minute to account for. Things like being held on the way out by cars in front waiting to get on to Northgate or even your own car being held up trying to get on to Northgate at a busy time. then other considerations like having to stop to allow pedestrians to walk in front of you or being held up by another car doing a u turn in front of your car. you would have to check with the driver and see if they could account for an extra one minute things like a disabled passenger or having to strap in a child . I am not advocating lying since that could lead to serious problems [like jail time] but there can be an awful lot of minor things that can cause a hold up of a minute even the engine not starting straight away or another car being badly parked as examples. Sadly you cannot include the 5 minute Consideration period as both IPC and BPA fail to comply with the convention that you can include that time with the Grace period.  
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County Claim Advice - Holiday Compensation


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Hi

 

I'm considering raising a claim against First Choice, as they have not responded to my compensation claim. All 4 of us (2 disabled kids) were ill during a stay in one of their resorts, which essentially wiped out the holiday.

 

Their legal team are uncontactable, and almost 8 months has passed without them responding to us. We raised a complaint with Abta, and they originally did not reply to them either. Abta referred it to their legal team, but FC responded advising they are not prepared to use the Abta mediation service, so Abta they have closed the close. We have never received any response to our claim.

 

I've never raised a court claim personally before, so was was just after some general advice about potential pitfalls etc. I can see the issue fee would be about £70, but would there be further costs if the case were defended?

 

My Mrs is concerned about us having a shedload of costs, should our claim fail, and mentioned a counterclaim, but unsure what this is??

 

This is the only option open to us however if we want to pursue it, as they are completely ignoring our claim.

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Hi

 

I'm considering raising a claim against First Choice, as they have not responded to my compensation claim. All 4 of us (2 disabled kids) were ill during a stay in one of their resorts, which essentially wiped out the holiday.

 

Their legal team are uncontactable, and almost 8 months has passed without them responding to us. We raised a complaint with Abta, and they originally did not reply to them either. Abta referred it to their legal team, but FC responded advising they are not prepared to use the Abta mediation service, so Abta they have closed the close. We have never received any response to our claim.

 

I've never raised a court claim personally before, so was was just after some general advice about potential pitfalls etc. I can see the issue fee would be about £70, but would there be further costs if the case were defended?

 

My Mrs is concerned about us having a shedload of costs, should our claim fail, and mentioned a counterclaim, but unsure what this is??

 

This is the only option open to us however if we want to pursue it, as they are completely ignoring our claim.

 

 

Have you not considering claiming compensation for your illness too?

 

Was it an AI resort?

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Have you not considering claiming compensation for your illness too?

 

Was it an AI resort?

 

Yeah it was inclusive - last time i ever do a holiday like that.

 

Not really thought of compensation to be honest, was just looking to get the cost of the holiday back, as it was complete write off. Would it be likely to be granted?

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Yeah it was inclusive - last time i ever do a holiday like that.

 

Not really thought of compensation to be honest, was just looking to get the cost of the holiday back, as it was complete write off. Would it be likely to be granted?

 

 

You'd have to seek formal advice from a solicitor.

 

If you didn't eat outside of your hotel, reported your illness to your resort rep and saw a doctor then there's a very good chance you'll get a settlement.

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You'd have to seek formal advice from a solicitor.

 

If you didn't eat outside of your hotel, reported your illness to your resort rep and saw a doctor then there's a very good chance you'll get a settlement.

 

can tick all the boxes there, although we disdnt all see the doctor. At 90 euro a pop we just got the little one looked at

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So only evidence to claim for your little one. Because you did not all get checked, that would be a problem. First Choice are likely to defend any claim, so make sure you only claim for what you can evidence.

We could do with some help from you.

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can you possibly get any evidence of any other families on same holiday/ resort falling ill? might help getting some background in before filing a claim.

what letters have you sent to FC in regards to claiming?

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So only evidence to claim for your little one. Because you did not all get checked, that would be a problem. First Choice are likely to defend any claim, so make sure you only claim for what you can evidence.

 

Should still all be able to make a claim for all family members, but formal legal advice from a personal injury/holiday sickness specialist lawyer is required.

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In terms of additional costs, there would be a 'hearing fee' to pay if the case proceeded to a hearing. Search for court form EX50 which explains what this is. There shouldn't be much else.

 

You would not usually be liable to pay First Choice's legal costs in the small claims track. However you could be ordered to pay their costs if the judge finds that you 'behaved unreasonably'. This is rare but would apply if - for example - you ignore court deadlines, ignore court correspondence or part of your claim is found to be dishonest/fraudulent.

 

The main difficulty with a case like this would be proving it I suppose. You would need to prove on a balance of probabilities that (1) everyone in the family was actually ill, (2) the illness was caused by a problem at the resort. These things are quite difficult to prove so you need to have a think about what evidence you might be able to come up with or request from First Choice in due course - e.g. doctor's reports, was a report made, were other guests in the resort ill too, etc. etc.

 

In terms of procedure, you should serve a formal 'letter before action' explaining exactly what you intend to sue for and stating that a claim will be issued if a satisfactory response is not received within 14 days. You then wait 14 days for them to respond before issuing your claim. The Civil Procedure Rules require that you do this. You should be able to find reasonable templates for this online.

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The main difficulty with a case like this would be proving it I suppose. You would need to prove on a balance of probabilities that (1) everyone in the family was actually ill, (2) the illness was caused by a problem at the resort.

 

I disagree. Why? Because:

1) Not everyone in the holiday party has to become ill.

What if I am vegetarian, and my holiday party all become ill except me, due to a meat dish that I didn't consume ......

 

Re-reading : do you instead mean "proving everyone we claim was ill was actually ill"? rather than "everyone in the party has to fall ill"??

 

2) "The illness was caused by a problem at the resort" is too broad.

There could be a problem at the resort that didn't represent a breach of duty of care by the resort.

The yardstick is "problem at the resort that represents a breach of the resort's established duty of care".

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I disagree. Why? Because:

1) Not everyone in the holiday party has to become ill.

What if I am vegetarian, and my holiday party all become ill except me, due to a meat dish that I didn't consume ......

 

Re-reading : do you instead mean "proving everyone we claim was ill was actually ill"? rather than "everyone in the party has to fall ill"??

I meant to say the latter (although I see why you read it the other way as it was not clear in my original post!)

 

The point I am trying to make is that the Op is trying to claim for his entire party and it might be difficult to prove that everyone in the party was ill, as opposed to just one or two people. Not impossible, just potentially difficult.

 

2) "The illness was caused by a problem at the resort" is too broad.

There could be a problem at the resort that didn't represent a breach of duty of care by the resort.

The yardstick is "problem at the resort that represents a breach of the resort's established duty of care".

I agree

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Should still all be able to make a claim for all family members, but formal legal advice from a personal injury/holiday sickness specialist lawyer is required.

 

My reply was based on reading about such cases. There have been loads of these cases in the media recently and one of the problems was people not getting Doctors reports fully diagnosing the exact issue, obtaining stool samples. Also whether the hotel and tour operator were informed, so they could take necessary actions

We could do with some help from you.

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thanks for all the responses guys. We submitted a formal complaint to FC, and received acknowledgement, along with a timeframe of 6 months for it to be investiagted. 8 months on, we've heard nothing more, and despite daily attempts at contact for weeks on on end, there has been no reply to e mails, letters or phone calls. We have made numerous attempts via facebook chat which are all documentated, however they simply advise we need to speak to legal team, who we have been trying to contact in the first place.

 

We advised the rep (verbally) of all our illnesses, but only the 2 kids were "officially recorded", and only 1 was medically examined and has a doctors report.

 

We were weighing up either one of these sick holiday type claim firms, or doing a claim form ourselves.

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