NPM PCN claimform - overstay Un-adopted Rd entrance to old St Edmunds Hosp Northampton - *** Claim Struck Out+Costs***

[ericsbrother]

what exactly are the Particulars of Claim?

 

 first of all you need to acknowledge the claim by setting up an account at money claim online.

They have 2 versions currently running, the beta version is more user friendly but they lead to the same thing.

 

once you have acknowledged the claim you get an extra  12 days to submit an outline defence so 28 days in total.

 

Your defence can be quite simple at this stage so something like there was no lawful contract offered for you to consider so ther can be no breach to give a cause for action. 

 

( that allows you to attack the lack of PP and the content of the signage as well as their failure to follow procedure)

 

if you go for this simple approach you can also rip into their POC and any procedural errors with the claim itself but I would never rely on that as a stand alone defence.

 

Later on you can refer to the other case as being persuasive as well as going into detail on the no contract defence

[ericsbrother]

back to the content of their Particulars of Claim.

 

they say the claim is for unauthorised parking

- now this cant be,

it has to be for monies due under a contract for parking or for a breach of contract.

as you know unauthorised parking is a contractual impossibility being prohibitive in nature,

it means you aren't being offered a contract so you cant form or break it that means the amount claimed is an unlawful penalty.

 

now you also know that the £60 unicorn food tax can only ever apply to the DRIVER so if you havent identified yourself as the driver and they wrote to you in the capacity of keeper of the vehicle the POFA forbids them adding this sum (they are too thick to know this, they just copy everyone else and hope)

 

even if you were the driver the amount has to be expressly written into the contract on the signage and if it isnt that is a breach of the unfair contracts terms regs of the CRA 2015 so that voids the entire contract if you dont wish to be bound by it in any way. ( they don't have a contract as already said so a moot point)

 

Now you can either put this in your outline defence and then state that as theire is no reasonable grounds the claim will ever be found in their favour you ask for a dismissal of it under CPR 3.4 and hope the judge gets to read it before it goes to the next stage

[ericsbrother]

asking theoretical questions about what the trade associations do doesnt help you.

As for the rest, this has alread either answered or you have decided to ignore the advice already given and try and rely on the WRONG part of the POFA.

 

You are not writing a book at this stage, either go with the one line suggested or add their failure to do the POC so it shows a cause for action.

 

Now as the driver was named can we assume that as you are writing all of this that you are the driver as well as the defendant?

You would be surprised how many peopel come here on behalf of someone else and take it upon themselves to act as though they are the defendant and o occasion turn up at court and then promptly lose becasue they have no right to be there. Do not fall into that bearpit.

 

so my suggestion is  again the simple

" there was not contract between the claimant and the defendant so no cause for action"

 

  and then rubbish their POC if you wish but again you can do this when the allocation questionnaire comes along ior in your Witness Statement when you get closer to the hearing date.

 

At the moment it would be wise to say nothing you dont need to so you dont drop yourself in it or go down a dead end argument route

[ericsbrother]

they may well take it to the wire hoping you put in a rubbish defence like " I didnt mean to" but drop the claim when they actually see you have a decent one and quote thie previous case as being persuasive. Now you need to get the details of that if you possibly can, claim number would be a great start and any local reporting on it to see what the defendant said.

Their POC is rubbish so you are halfway there, you know that prohibitive isnt a contract and load os other points regarding timings, planning etc that are often misunderstood but you will ram these home to create a bigger picture about the inability of a contract being formed

[ericsbrother]

they are not the first lot to do this, it is designed to intimidate the waverers and is very likely to be unlawful unless the data is held on a secure server and each individual accessing it has their own password.

 

you can make a complaint to the ICO about this and if you get a response in time use it to bash them.

 

The ICO still prefers to have a quiet word with miscreants rather than chucking the book at them as they hope to get the crooks to change their ways rather than punish the wrongdoer

[ericsbrother]

If I thought that telling Trading Standards was a worthwhile exercise I would have said write to them and not the ICO but as it is a data protection issue and very much in the world of the ICO  said compain to them and that doesnt mean complain to your vicar or TS as they may well sympathise but cant do anything.

 

We try to offer precise advice so spend your time learning about the issues rather than trying to spread this as thinly as possible but hoping someone will take up the cudgels and help you. 

 Learn and then focus

[ericsbrother]

this crowd will turn up to a local court but probably not bother with a case if the defenant lived in Aberdeen for example.

AS Parking are the same, they pitch up and tell outrageous lies in manchester but wont travel further afield but that doesnt stop them issuing claims and hoping to play the odds.

 

as said repeatedly, they win 85% of the cases because the defendant doesnt bother, either just pays up or ignores and so gets a default judgement. They dont win even 5% of the claims that are defended properly ( not some pensioner saying it isnt fair, that is not a defence) and thus have to take a commercial decision on whether to keep pushing their luck.

 

If your local court was Aberdeen then they would either have to spend about £100 on train fare plus hotel just to lose or pay a local solicitor to turn up and thus lose £50-100 in costs so that is why most of them bottle out, risk v reward. If they just dropped claims they knew were iffy they would never issue a ticket in the first place but they go through the charade to try and encourage others to pay up or the word will get around that there is no need to take any notice of them.

 

After the Beavis decision  the number of court cases quadrupled becasue they no longer automatically lost every claim where schedule of loss was mentioned. Barry Beavis would likely have won if he had used planning permission as an argument. ironic as the final decision actually changed the law rather than clarified it and the judges DARED parliament to challenge them!

[ericsbrother]

we know where you live and we know where they are which is why i say they will self represent as they save themselves £100 in costs when they lose.

gladstones dotn turn up ever, they just hire a local gun for hire and them brief them badly about a day before the hearing.

 

All your last post shows is that you havent read enought about all of this yet so stuff your mind full of other cases.  and makse sure that you are now prining off anything you find that is remotely usable.

 

Go into court and ask about the previous hearings, claim number ( you have date from report) and so forth.

 

You can then bother the original defendant to see what EXACTLY their case was about, even small differences in the claim wording may make a difference and ask them what the judge actually said in summing up

 

.  They may not have a great recollection but the gist of it is better than nothing.

[ericsbrother]

no-one has ever won an IAS appeal without the matter being published in a national newspaper beforehand and the IPC/IAS "invited" to comment publicly in print.

 

other cases are very important,

judges love precedent as it means when they make a decision it is less ikely to be challenged.

there are compelling and persuasive cases,

most of the court reports at County Court are persuasive but on rare occasions someone challenges them.

 

Read all about Brodrick v Gale and Ainslie Ltd, Swindon CC to see what happens when someone thinks they dont like presuasive cases and want to appeal.

 

your job is to use places like the Parking Prankster's blog to dig up as many of those cases and you use the reports as you find them in the blog rather than just saying mine is the same as Parksharks v Smith because no judge will have read that case and it is YOUR evidence you you have to show the content.

 

now transcripts are available for some notable cases but just the screen shot of the pranksters blog is evidential enough as long as it identifies the case, where it was and the general precis of how the decision was reached.

His court reports are usually written up by lay reps who have years of experience ( retired solicitors for example)

 

you can never have to much evidence, just keep the WS tidy so it can be read and the rest of the stuff referred to easily.

In court you will soon find yourself answering things in a completely different order to how it is written down so you need to be able to find the reference quickly

[ericsbrother]

You have already been told about how to present twice but  I will say it again.

 

You refer to it in your WS exactly like that and then use a screen dump of the article in your evidence bundle as document (whatever number you have given it)

 

It doesnt matter if it says Mrs X, the case number, court and date are there so the judge can look it up and see the entire thing if they so wish. you are showing that there is meat on the bone of your argument.

 

If you get the same judge as the reported case then you say it is the same alleged cause for action and same place so you want that to be considered as persuasive as well.

 

The parking co really shouldnt waste their time doing this but they have to look tough and be able to boast that they do take miscreant parkers to court to try and dissuade others from telling them to jog on

 

. they are nearly all small beer companies and desperately need your money to keep going so a decent costs order against them may well make them avoid court at all costs (pun intended)

[ericsbrother]

for the fifth time that is why you put Mrs K, case ref  court and date in your WS and the whole article as an evidential document.

 

If the judge thought you were trying to invent a case summary they would then look up the full hearing details on their system

 

half of the case law in the UK doesnt have a name for the appellant or defendant and in the case of family court matters never does have

 

. It is the least important thing in the whole case, the law is what counts

[ericsbrother]

No, they donht get a say in the matter as you are an individual and they are a company so it will always be your choice.

 

they dont bother wasting their ink at this stage but will try and hoodwink you later by asking for the case to be heard "on the papers" because they know they are stuffed if the matter is heard in open court esp in front of the same judge that spat out their last attempt to rook people.

[ericsbrother]

and it costs them nothing as well. If there is a hearing they have to spend another £50-100 on a local solicitor to attend so when they lose that bumps up the bill their client gets for their incompetent handling of the case and thus puts the client off from trying their luck again.

 

You need to look up the term "you've been Gladstoned"

[ericsbrother]

so you havent looked up the phrase have you?

[ericsbrother]

phone the court and ask them to strike the claim out using their case management powers.

If the case is merely adjourned they still have to pay a new fee to have it reinstated and probably explain themselves as well.

[ericsbrother]

the failure to use the correct protocols costs them 25% of any claim if they are successful but is no punishment for those who lose and abuse the court process.

 

You can make an unreasonable behaviours costs request without actually having a hearing.

CPR 27.14.2(g) is the thing to quote, claim for litigant in person researcha nd preparation time of 5 hours @£19.50/hr and your postage and printing costs.

 

You can also send NPM  a bill directly for their breach of the GDPR/DPA and let them know that you will take them to court for the same. VCS v  Phillip  is the persuasive case when it comes to parking so £250 will be at the lower end of damages but clearly accepted.

 

It has been known for a parking co to just send the cheque upon receipt of a lba for the same but only once as far as I know

[ericsbrother]

Well done for the result and I am glad that the judge has done his homework, that makes a big difference to how much you have to explain about the ins and outs of the protocols and law..

I was in court last week and had a young DDJ who didnt know the difference between a lay Rep and a McKenzie friend so  being in front of someone more senior has paid off for you.

Now i would be getting on to the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph and the Chronicle and Echo and letting them know about this and that will cut  NPM off at the ankles for any other claim they may have going.

Also consider suing NPM for breach of the GDPR for unlawful processing of your personal data.

 

as an observation the reference to Dawood so high up the list of reasons surprises me as like planning it is one that i normally suggest where applicable as a go with for other strong arguments rather than a stand alone.

[ericsbrother]

if the other peopel are aware that there are previous cases all they need to say is that thiers is the same as the other persuasive cases and the judges will agree. the problem is that not many people know about places like CAG and the past record of the parking co at a court so that is why i would have hoped the papers would have taken the story up

[ericsbrother]

there are options open to you depending on how much you are owed.

 

One thing is to go for an order for an oral examination by ther court.

This costs £60 and makes the director of a company stand in front of a judge and explain how he ( the company) stands financially and how it intends to pay its debts.

 

The silly thing about this is that you have to pay his train fare to get there if it is requested but his failure to attend can result in him being done for contempt of court and the company being compulsorily would up

[ericsbrother]

obviously he cant ask for his train fare and yes, I knew this before I posted but wanted to point out there are conditions to this method.

yes, he will have t pay the costs -plus ther 360 if he cant provide a lawful reason for not paying and as it is a court order for costs then there isnt a lawful excuse.

as for bringing all fo the unpaid PCN's to court you are past that as far as evidence and process goes but it may have been suggested that they may be considered to be geinune creditors so would prove he has assets he can call on.

he doesnt owe you enough to try bankruptcy so not worth your time asking

Now I would ahve thought this was newsworthy enough for the Chronic echo.

Sign up to lnkedin and similar and see if he is listed. Debt collection is not harassment

Edited February 3, 2020 by ericsbrother