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You MUST show us all pages (including the reverse side of each notice or order if there is any printing on the back). The Notice of Allocation may have further directions or notes that are not visible from what you have shown, so it is important to confirm that there is no continuation page and no additional wording forming part of the order.
If there is no missing page, there is still a clear procedural unfairness. The court has ordered the claimant to produce core evidence (contractual terms, landowner authority, precise location, clear photographs, detailed allegations of breach, and a calculation of the sum claimed) because the claimant failed to provide those essentials earlier. They were not provided at the pre-action stage and were not properly pleaded in the Particulars of Claim. That is exactly why your defence was necessarily generic and put the claimant to strict proof.
The difficulty is that the order then requires simultaneous exchange of witness statements on the same deadline. If the claimant serves the ordered material at, or close to, the deadline, you are placed at an immediate disadvantage because you cannot meaningfully consider and respond to it within your own witness statement. The claimant is effectively being allowed to repair a defective and non-particularised claim at the evidence stage, while you are denied a fair opportunity to respond to the case once it is finally revealed.
That does not further the overriding objective. It creates inequality of arms and allows ambush by permitting the claimant to disclose the substance of its case at the last moment, even though that information should have been disclosed and pleaded much earlier. A fair and proportionate approach would be either sequential exchange, or permission for you to file a short supplemental witness statement limited to responding to the evidence the court has specifically ordered.
It should also be noted that, in practical terms, it is extremely unlikely that DCB Legal will comply with the order at all. Based on their well-established conduct in parking claims, there is a 99.9% likelihood that they will discontinue the claim before the relevant deadlines rather than pay the trial fee and prepare a compliant witness statement. Nevertheless, because there remains a remote possibility that they do not discontinue, it is still sensible and proportionate to send the below email now to protect your position and to place the procedural unfairness on record.
That email should be sent to Nuneaton County Court at
enquiries.nuneaton.countycourt@justice.gov.uk, with DCB Legal copied at
info@dcblegal.co.uk and yourself copied in for your records:
Subject: Claim No: [XXXXXXXX] – Request for Further Directions (Witness Statement/Evidence Exchange)
Dear Court Officer,
I am the Defendant in claim number [XXXXXXXX].
The Notice of Allocation to the Small Claims Track dated [date of notice] issued by DJ Stringer includes specific directions requiring the Claimant to file and serve particular categories of evidence (including the written terms relied upon, landowner authority, clarification of the contractual location, clear photographs, detailed allegations of breach, and an explanation of how the sum claimed is calculated).
The Defendant’s Defence pleaded that the Particulars of Claim were deficient and did not comply with CPR 16.4, such that the Defendant could not understand the case being advanced with sufficient particularity. The Court’s directions appear to recognise this by ordering the Claimant to provide the missing core material.
However, the current direction for simultaneous exchange of witness statements and documents by 27 January 2026 at 4pm risks procedural unfairness. If the Claimant serves the ordered material on the deadline, the Defendant will have no meaningful opportunity to consider and respond to it within the Defendant’s witness statement, notwithstanding that the evidence is being required precisely because the claim was not properly particularised.
Accordingly, the Defendant respectfully requests further directions, namely either:
1. Sequential exchange: the Claimant must file and serve its witness statement and documents by 13 January 2026 at 4pm, and the Defendant must file and serve the Defendant’s witness statement and documents by 27 January 2026 at 4pm; or
2. If the Court maintains simultaneous exchange, permission for the Defendant to file and serve a short supplemental witness statement strictly limited to responding to the Claimant’s evidence served pursuant to items (a)–(f) of the Order, within 14 days of receipt of the Claimant’s witness statement and documents.
The Defendant submits that either variation is proportionate, avoids ambush, and gives effect to the overriding objective without causing any material prejudice to the Claimant.
A copy of this request is being sent to the Claimant’s solicitors, DCB Legal Ltd.
Yours faithfully,
[Your name]
Defendant
[Postal address]
[Email]
cc: DCB Legal Ltd – info@dcblegal.co.uk
