Free Traffic Legal Advice

I don't know where you got your advice from before coming to this forum but this has been FUBAR'd by your defence.

Think about it... The PoC in the N1SDT Claim Form state no cause of action. This is a complete failure to abide by CPR 16.4(1)(a). Irrespective of anything received prior to the claim being made, the claimant is required to state a cause of action in their claim. Without a cause of action, you have no idea why they claim you owe them a debt.

You stated in your defence that they had not complied with the rules yet then go on to defend in detail what they failed to tell you in the PoC. If the PoC are defective and they were required to state a cause of action, then they could have submitted further detailed PoC within 14 days of the claim being issued. They didn't. You defended with a load of detail that you should not have mentioned.

Now you are going to go to trial. You can still try and argue as a preliminary matter that the PoC failed to comply with CPR 16.4(1)(a) and the claim should be struck out on that basis alone and you can use the persuasive, but not binding, Chan and Akande cases as reference, but as it has reached the hearing stage, it is a bit too late and you have to hope that your judge agrees that "rules are rules" and the claimant has not abided by them and the claim can be struck out.

However, you are playing a game of "judge bingo" and it will all come down as to how well you plead your case on the day and how much the court agrees that Moorside Legal are a bunch of incompetents and how they have managed to get a case this far in the first place.

As this is now FUBAR, I'm afraid that I am unable to assist any further but wish you luck at your hearing. There may be others who are willing to try and assist you further.

My only other observation would be that you clarified on here that your WS may be referring to another parking event, but neither of the witness statements appear to make this clear (I've only quickly read them, so apologies if they do and I've missed it). If they do not, then I'd repeat b789's point earlier on that you should prepare to explain this to the judge. Otherwise, if your witness statements paint what seems to be an incorrect version of what actually happened, without explanation, this may harm your credibility.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EOnQp2dN8j8jtBGGDnO7BNpJz9eZnzJT/view?usp=sharing


DWMB2 – thanks.

Son had tried 2 avenues (pages 2 /3 shown in the above pdf) to elicit further details from claimant about the event in question, but claimant didn’t respond to either.

Defence commences on page 4 of the pdf. On page 9 #15, para 2 reference is made to the restaurant because it’s a commonly held belief that tickets are simply sent out to the keeper of any car which parks adjacent to Nandos in order to collect a takeaway (even if there is no evidence that the driver gets out to collect the takeaway). Son believed that since his car is shown parked next to Nandos he was the victim of this. When the defence was written he only had the picture on the NTK to go on which shows his car parked next to Nandos and it was 15 months after the date of the event.

Later, when witness statements were called for (Son’s WS starts on pdf page 14) he states on point #8 that he was not the driver.

My own WS is on page 27, and it states that I was the driver.

When claimant’s WS arrived there were additional pictures (pdf pages:44-46) which showed son leaving the car park in a different direction to the restaurant (so not going to Nandos). I assumed that those additional pictures rendered the comments about the restaurant irrelevant and that my input would remain as both witness and lay representative.

Unless claimant produces even more pictures derived from the multitude of cameras in the car park to suggest otherwise, we assume that the claimant believes that son was the driver solely on the basis that he was standing next to the open driver’s door.

What happens if claimant files a supplemental WS with more pictures or presents more at the hearing?