Free Traffic Legal Advice

I can't agree with a view which says that it's unarguable that there was enough room beyond the box before hitting the car in front.

IMO, it's arguable that there was room for you to exit. But IMO it is not so obvious that this won't be disputed and that an adjudicator might find that because the nuisance the prohibition is targeting was clearly created by the OP, the balance is in the council's favour. 

OP, in your reps IMO you must put it to the council that there was room for you to exit, but you chose not to..and test their reasoning. You might say that you didn't want to enter the crossing zig-zag area or whatever!

Ambulance was coming at the back?
Does anyone have any template for this please?

All,

I`m willing to fight this to the end. This is in relation to a PCN I received from Waltham forest - I will create a timeline below.

15th June - WF sent email to say a new permit system would be put in place mipermit on 1st july.Everyone should be migrated by 1st July.
2nd July - Still did not receive migration email.
3rd July - received migration email
21st July - WF sent email saying things could have been smoother including sending details on how to book visitor permits but failing to give proper details on how to actually book the permit.
21st July - Called WF so that they can transfer my permit to my new car. They confirmed it has been transferred but turns out that this was only done for School Street permit and not the actual resident permit.
22nd July - Received PCN
31st July - Sent appeal to WF via email.
12th August - WF Rejected the appeal without even considering the mitigating circumstances regarding the parking permit situation.
Please note since the PCN a parking permit was applied correctly

If I go all the way to tribunal, I would like to use the following points for my defence :-

- The customer service line was ultra busy and had staff from a 3rd party company who did not have access to everything.
- When I called on 21st July - they mentioned that my resident permit has been updated with my new car reg but that wasn`t the case as only the school permit was applied.
- WF failed to properly inform people how to buy resident permit even in the email they sent, my zone is GM and on the new app you should type VPGM.
- The app was showing my correct location but I couldn`t select my zone as the "nearest zone" according to the app was several miles away in a different borough.
- I am not a new resident and I already had a permit, all WF had to do was change the registration for the permit.

Thoughts, please.

Received a telephone mediation appointment - 3 hour window. Can anyone let me know how that works as I might be at work on that day and it will be a bit tricky to pick up the phone straight away.

For form N180  when filling it - I should tick
Page 1 - Defendant
Page 2 - B - Contact Details
Page 3 - Contact Details
    C - C1 - Yes as claim is under 10k
    D - D1 - NO???
Page 4 - E1 - Mediation appointment? should i put my details in?
        E2 - Is mediation done over the phone and is this a quick phone call?
        E3- No
Page 5 - E4 - No
Page 6 - F1 - Respondents home court - should I specify which one?
        F2 - No
        F3 - 1
Page 7 - F4 - I list the dates when I`m not available to attend the hearing.
        F5 - No
        F6 - No
Page 8 - G1 - Yes
        G2 - English
        G3 - English

Is that how the form should be filled in? and can someone point to me where I can find details about my home court please?
Should I then post it to the court that issued it?

Defense was submitted on  May 22nd with the following text

DEFENCE


1. The Defendant denies any liability for this claim.

2. The Claimant has failed to comply with the strict requirements
of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (POFA 2012),
specifically:
(a) The Creditor failed to provide the Hirer with a 'Notice to
Hirer' within the relevant statutory period in accordance with
Paragraph 14(2)(a);

(b) The 'Notice to Hirer' was not accompanied by the mandatory
documents required under Paragraph 14(2)(b), namely:

(i) A statement signed by or on behalf of the vehicle-hire firm
confirming that the vehicle was hired to a named person under a
hire agreement;
(ii) A copy of the relevant hire agreement; and
(iii) A copy of the statement of liability signed by the hirer
under that hire agreement.

Consequently, the Claimant has failed to satisfy the strict
statutory conditions required to transfer liability from the
registered keeper to the hirer.
In the absence of POFA 2012 compliance, the Claimant has no lawful
right to pursue the Defendant in their capacity as the hirer.
Therefore, the Defendant, as hirer, cannot be held liable for this
charge when the identity of the driver at the material time has
not been established, and the Defendant is under no legal
obligation to identify the driver.

3. There is a lack of precise detail in the Particulars of Claim
(PoC) in respect of the factual and legal allegations made against
the Defendant such that the PoC do not comply with CPR 16.4.

4. The Defendant is unable to plead properly to the PoC because:
(a) The contract referred to is not detailed or attached to the
PoC in accordance with CPR PD 16(7.3)
(b) The PoC do not state the exact wording of the clause (or
clauses) of the terms and conditions of the contract (or
contracts) which is/are relied on;
(c) The PoC do not state with sufficient particularity the
exact
time when the breaches occurred and how long it is alleged that
the vehicle was parked before the parking charges were allegedly
incurred;
(d) The PoC do not state exactly how the claim for statutory
interest is calculated;
(e) The PoC do not state what proportion of the claim are the
parking charges and what proportion is damages;
(f) The PoC states that the Claimant is suing the defendant as
the
driver or the keeper. The claimant obviously knows whether the
defendant is being sued as the driver or the keeper and should not
be permitted to plead alternative causes of action


Statement of truth

I believe that the facts stated in this Defence are true. I
understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought
against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement
in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest
belief in its truth.

Yes, I’d add something to (2) to the effect of

Quote

and therefore the defendant, as hirer, can not be held liable when the driver has not been identified

just to make the point.

can i replace it with this? - unfortunately for some reason the formatting isn`t coming up correctly for me to paste the whole defense again. if this is ok, do i fill up the acknowledgment of defence and put this as my defence form?

2. The Claimant has failed to comply with the strict requirements of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 ("POFA 2012"), specifically:
(a) The Creditor failed to provide the Hirer with a 'Notice to Hirer' within the relevant statutory period in accordance with Paragraph 14(2)(a);

(b) The 'Notice to Hirer' was not accompanied by the mandatory documents required under Paragraph 14(2)(b), namely:

(i) A statement signed by or on behalf of the vehicle-hire firm confirming that the vehicle was hired to a named person under a hire agreement;
(ii) A copy of the relevant hire agreement; and
(iii) A copy of the statement of liability signed by the hirer under that hire agreement.

Consequently, the Claimant has failed to satisfy the strict statutory conditions required to transfer liability from the registered keeper to the hirer.
In the absence of POFA 2012 compliance, the Claimant has no lawful right to pursue the Defendant in their capacity as the hirer. Therefore, the Defendant, as hirer, cannot be held liable for this charge when the identity of the driver at the material time has not been established, and the Defendant is under no legal obligation to identify the driver.

Quote

But you will need to file a defence in due course.

By 1 June, or you file an Acknowledgment of Service by this date which gives you until 15 June to file a defence.
You were promised a template defence earlier in this thread by someone who no longer posts here, but increasingly we have seen the likely template defence struck out by the courts because it’s generic and addresses the failings of the claimant’s process rather than being a defence specific to the case.
You have the information you need in this thread to construct a defence around Parking Eye’s failure to comply with PoFA 2012 to transfer liability from the unknown driver to the hirer, so I suggest you work on that, structure it into paragraphs for clarity and post it here for comment.
The basic point that DCB Legal will almost certainly discontinue in the face of a properly defended claim stands.

Could this be used

N THE COUNTY COURT
Claim No: [Claim Number]

BETWEEN:

UK Parking Control Ltd
Claimant

- and -

[Defendant's Full Name]

Defendant


DEFENCE


1. The Defendant denies any liability for this claim.

2. There is a lack of precise detail in the Particulars of Claim (PoC) in respect of the factual and legal allegations made against the Defendant such that the PoC do not comply with CPR 16.4.

3. The Defendant is unable to plead properly to the PoC because:

(a) The contract referred to is not detailed or attached to the PoC in accordance with CPR PD 16(7.5);

(b) The PoC do not state the exact wording of the clause (or clauses) of the terms and conditions of the contract which is relied on;

(c) The PoC do not state with sufficient particularity exactly where the breach occurred, the exact time when the breach occurred and how long it is alleged that the vehicle was parked before the parking charge was allegedly incurred;

(d) The PoC do not state exactly how the claim for statutory interest is calculated;

(e) The PoC do not state what proportion of the claim is the parking charge and what proportion is damages;

(f) The PoC states that the Claimant is suing the defendant as the driver or the keeper. The claimant obviously knows whether the defendant is being sued as the driver or the keeper and should not be permitted to plead alternative causes of action.

4. The Defendant has attached to this defence a copy of an order made at another court which the allocating judge ought to make at this stage so that the Defendant can then know and understand the case which he/she/it faces and can then respond properly to the claim.

Statement of truth

I believe that the facts stated in this Defence are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

Signed:


Date:

Draft Order for the defence