Free Traffic Legal Advice

With an issue date of 21st November, you had until 4pm on Wednesday 10th December to submit your defence. If you submitted an Acknowledgement of Service (AoS) before then, you would then have until 4pm on Wednesday 24th December to submit your defence.

Did you submit an AoS? If you didn't, you may already have CCJ in default. Log into your MCOL and check the status. If it does not mention anything, make absolutely sure you just go straight for the defence I provide below and also buy a lottery ticket.

You only need to submit an AoS if you need extra time to prepare your defence. If you want to submit an AoS then follow the instructions in this linked PDF:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xvqu3bask5m0zir/money-claim-online-How-to-Acknowledge.pdf?dl=0

Until very recently, we never advised using the MCOL to submit a defence. However, due to recent systemic failures within the CNBC, we feel that it is safer to now submit a short defence using MCOL as it is instantly submitted and entered into the "system". Whilst it will deny the use of some formatting or inclusion of transcripts etc. these can always be included with the Witness Statement (WS) later, if it ever progresses that far.

You will need to copy and paste it into the defence text box on MCOL. It has been checked to make sure that it will fit into the 122 lines limit.

1. The Defendant denies the claim in its entirety. The Defendant asserts that there is no liability to the Claimant and that no debt is owed. The claim is without merit and does not adequately disclose any comprehensible cause of action.

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 adequately 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 PD 16, para 7.3(1);

(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 adequately set out the reason (or reasons) why the claimant asserts the defendant has breached the contract (or contracts);

(d) 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;

(e) The PoC do not state precisely how the sum claimed is calculated, including the basis for any statutory interest, damages, or other charges;

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

(g) The PoC do not provide clarity on whether the Defendant is sued as the driver or the keeper of the vehicle, as the claimant cannot plead alternative causes of action without specificity.

4. The Defendant submits that courts have previously struck out materially similar claims of their own initiative for failure to adequately comply with CPR 16.4, particularly where the Particulars of Claim failed to specify the contractual terms relied upon or explain the alleged breach with sufficient clarity.

5. In comparable cases involving modest sums, judges have found that requiring further case management steps would be disproportionate and contrary to the overriding objective. Accordingly, strike-out was deemed appropriate. The Defendant submits that the same reasoning applies in this case and invites the court to adopt a similar approach by striking out the claim due to the Claimant’s failure to adequately comply with CPR 16.4, rather than permitting an amendment. The Defendant proposes that the following Order be made:

Draft Order:

Of the Court's own initiative and upon reading the particulars of claim and the defence.

AND the court being of the view that the particulars of claim do not adequately comply with CPR 16.4(1)(a) because: (a) they do not set out the exact wording of the clause (or clauses) of the terms and conditions of the contract which is (or are) relied on; and (b) they do not adequately set out the reason (or reasons) why the claimant asserts that the defendant was in breach of contract.

AND the claimant could have complied with CPR 16.4(1)(a) had it served separate detailed particulars of claim, as it could have done pursuant to PD 7C, para 5.2, but chose not to do so.

AND upon the Court determining, having regard to the overriding objective (CPR 1.1), that it would be disproportionate to direct further pleadings or to allot any further share of the Court’s resources to this claim (for example by ordering further particulars of claim and a further defence, with consequent case management).

ORDER:

1. The claim is struck out.

2. Permission to either party to apply to set aside, vary or stay this order by application on notice, which must be filed at this Court not more than 7 days after service of this order, failing which no such application may be made.

Have things changed?

The only time I've gone through the Small Claims Track of the County Court, (I was the plaintiff, not the defendant and it was thirty years ago), legal fees / costs couldn't be claimed - it was what underpinned the whole premise of the system, no highly inflated solicitor bills.

I see from the OP's screenshot that there's £50 added for legal costs?

The basic principle has not changed. In the small claims track solicitor’s fees are not generally recoverable, each side normally bears their own costs.

What you are seeing is one of the limited fixed costs permitted by the Civil Procedure Rules. There are two separate £50 categories. First, CPR Part 45 and Practice Direction 45 Table 1 allow a fixed commencement cost of £50 when a claim is issued in the County Court, which is why it appears on the N1SDT claim form.

Second, CPR 27.14(2)(a)(ii) allows the court to award up to £50 for legal representation if a representative actually attends the final hearing, should it ever get to that point, which is unlikely in most of the cases we dealt with here. That second £50 would only even be considered if the claimant won and the defendant lost, and it is capped at £50 regardless of the solicitor’s bill.

Neither of these entitlements opens the door to inflated solicitor’s fees. The small claims regime still prevents recovery of general legal costs, except for court fees, capped witness expenses, and costs for unreasonable behaviour under CPR 27.14(2)(g).