Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi, I got a claim form through a few weeks ago from EPS Ltd for a stay of around 70 seconds by my vehicle. I am the registered keeper.

I did get the various letters at the time but I cant currently locate them, they are about somewhere though. I haven't so far responded to any letters at any time apart from doing the acknowledgment of service with the court, the defence has to be in by the 7th November.

This is the place where the "incident took place", the reviews are just terrible for it. Surely they cant have a valid claim for just 70 seconds or so.




If I cant find the original letters is it possible to get a copy of them from the claimant, I take it they will use them as evidence if it gets that far.

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Hi, thanks for the reply, the court claim issue date was 8/10/2024 and I filled the AOS on 24/10/2024

Is the defence in this thread ok to use?

https://www.ftla.uk/private-parking-tickets/need-help-creating-defence-for-the-county-court-claim-(if-any)/?PHPSESSID=e6vqamgvpifd3ctvpdbfuspinf

Thanks for the help, I've sent off the documents to that relevant email address and had an auto reply saying thankyou for emailing the claims responses team so they've got the documents.

do I have to do anything with the MCOL bit now, that's where I filed the AOS.

The solicitors are Gladstones BTW.

Also I don't have to send a copy of those documents to EPS as well do I?

Hi, to continue this, I have now recieved a witness statement from a an employee of EPS although his address given is in Birmingham so its EPS head office. Its a lengthy PDF of 30 pages and details all their arguments and pictures, copies of the original ticket etc. It has the registered keepers name all over it so I cant really redact it and post it on here, I could potentially DM it to a trusted person to have a look at if possible.

However the court case is due to go ahead about the middle of May providing EPS pay the fee which is due about now, what do I need to do next, do I need to provide a witness statement like the one they sent or is it just a matter of turning up on the day with some sound arguments.

I could possibly post parts of the witness statement if soemone wants to look at a specific part of it, I'll start with the original ticket front and back.

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The main factor for me is though, the length of the parking, according to their CCTV the car was parked for 50 seconds, or according to them 1m 4 seconds. Surely this has no merit in a court case, I thought they had as devminimis rule

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Yes, I have that document from the court, don't want to be too specific on dates as it will single me out, not that thats too important but I need to check in the next day or so whether they have paid or not. The document said that if it wasn't paid by a certain date then it would be struck out. It didn't mention a witness statement was needed. I already sent a detailed defence via MCOL.

Yes by email sorry, It was acknowledged on MCOL that it had been recieved.

Case won, I was doing this on behalf of a friend though, the judge made me sit at the back on the naughty step and I couldn't interact with him at all, hovever my mate won it on the time he spent on site, less than a minute. I did mention this in my first or second post but no-one seemed interested.

To me that was the obvious winner, how can less than 60 seconds on site equate to £100 charge, its madness and the judge seemed to agree, did this case really need all that CPR stuff at the begining to try and get it thrown out? the Judge totally dismissed this and said it was just a template internet defence, wasn't interested at all, he obviously knew I was the "internet lawyer" so made me sit at the back.

I wanted to say to my mate go for costs but if I'd have said anything I think I would have gone to the cells. So in the end we just cleared off and were glad to be out of there.

So even though this was a vicotry, it felt like a defeat to me, it was hard work getting my mate to get me all the paperwork, posting it on here, sending stuff off to the courts and solicitors etc etc. Now my mate thinks he won it all by himself as he is the one that spoke up.

What I've learned from this is - never help anyone out -- ever.

Tere has to be. reason the judge dismissed the case and it isn't "just because it was for 2 minutes". It will be because there was no possibility of a contract being formed without a minimum consideration period.

No contract formed, therefore no valid claim. Claim dismissed.

The fact that the defence is a template should not be a factor. The defendant is allowed to use all available resources to submit a defence. That defence was put together by a long serving district judge. It was based on the fact that the claimant failed to comply with CPR 16.4(1)(a) (as do all claims submitted by Gladstone's). However, the attached transcripts are only persuasive, not binding.

So, the judge was not obliged to strike out the claim for the CPR 16.4(1)(a) failure, even though it was perfectly suitable to request that it was. What are the point of rules if they are not followed?

When you went to court with your friend, did you ask the usher to tell the judge that you would be their lay representative and show them a copy of the
The Lay Representatives (Rights of Audience) Order 1999?

Anyway, a win is a win. As stated in so many posts, the odds of it going all the way to an actual hearing a slim and even then, there is a very good chance that it will be successful.