Free Traffic Legal Advice

Good evening all :-) I can see you’ve already offered a fair bit of advice to people being pursued by DCB Legal for payment of Charge Notices issued by VCS Ltd for alleged breaches of the ‘no stopping’ rule at Bristol Airport. I’m very thankful for the advice I’ve read so far, any advice on my specific case gratefully received.

An N1SDT claim form from the CNBC was sent to my sister’s address 2 wks ago. It’s just caught up with me which gives me until monday the 10th of march to respond. I’ll try & be concise but I also want to include all relevant info:

The driver stopped for a red light at the temporary pelican outside arrivals on their way towards drop off & pick up. The pedestrian was exiting the terminal at the same time & saw an opportunity to quickly get into the car.

The still images supplied by VCS show the car being stopped for between 4 and 5 seconds & a red light is clearly visible in the first image

The photo timestamped 29/07/2024 23:17:26 shows the red light and the following images timestamped 23:17:29 and 23:17:31 respectively do not show any movement of traffic in the opposing lane indicating that the flow of traffic was not impeded in any way. I have more reasons for believing the charge notice to be unjust & drew attention to them in the email I sent to DCB Legal. I think they’ve all been covered on previous threads here so let’s skip that part, link to the email will be included below..

The charge notices and DCB Legal’s notices of debt recovery went to my sister’s house (driving license has since been updated) so there was always going to be a delay in my response but I had contacted DCB Legal via email within the 30 days demanded of me. As well as making my reasons for disputing the claim clear I asked them to remove any previous addresses from their records in accordance with data protection regulations and I asked them to provide clear answers to several relevant questions in accordance with the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims.

Despite this and my instructions to contact me at my new postal address the only response I had from them was an email asking me to confirm my Sister’s address. It also informed me that a response to said email would imply my consent to be contacted via that email address. I did not reply to it. They totally ignored my request to remove her address from their records and they didn't respond to my requests for information in accordance with Pre-Action Protocol.

So.. that’s where we are right now, the N1SDT claim form was sent to my sister’s address on the 19th of feb. I intend on fighting them all the way. Is it best to ignore DCB Legal at this point & just respond to the N1SDT? And is it too late to get them to go through my current address so I'm not constantly badgering my sister about mail? Any advice very gratefully received & huge thanks in advance.

I’ve attached links to the N1SDT & all previous correspondence including the email I sent to DCB Legal on IMGUR, links below.

N1SDT: https://imgur.com/a/cnbc-UBQVG3E
VCS:  https://imgur.com/a/vcs-49ARd7Y
DCB Legal: https://imgur.com/a/dcbl-xM0YaKD
cctv caps: https://imgur.com/a/cctv-caps-yiHJXl1
emails: https://imgur.com/a/emails-STDfNsc

Please stop mixing DCBL and DCB Legal. They are separate companies. One is a Debt Recovery Ageny (DRA) and the other is a bulk litigation company.

Additionally, please show us the N1SDT, redacting only your personal info, the claim number, the MCOL password and your VRM. Leave ALL dates and any times showing and the Particulars of Claim (PoC).

What is the issue date of the claim? Have you blabbed the identity of the driver? I think you may have, reading your letter to DCB Legal where you mention “I and all drivers” instead of simply referring to the driver in the third person.

You MUST send the address change to the Data Protection Officer (DPO) of both VCS and DCB Legal as a Data Rectification Notice (DRN) instructing them to update their records with your current address for service and to erase the other address. The highlighted words are there for a reason, so make sure you use them. The DPO email address can be found in the respective companies privacy policy section of their websites.

Their “Charge Notice” is a speculative invoice for an alleged breach of contract by the driver. Show us a photo of the signs they allege formed the contract. I’ll bet that they are simply prohibitive signs that cannot form a contract.

If you’ve blabbed the drivers identity, inadvertently or otherwise, then you’ve blown a very valuable defence out of the window. They cannot transfer liability from the unknown (to VCS) driver to the known Keeper. However, if the driver is now known, you’ve wasted that line of defence.

No, the issue date of the claim is 19th February 2025.

With an issue date of 19th February, you have until 4pm on Monday 10th March to submit your defence. However, if you submit an Acknowledgement of Service (AoS) before then, you would then have until 4pm on Monday 24th March to submit 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

Otherwise, here is the defence and link to the draft order that goes with it. You only need to edit your name and the claim number. You sign the defence by typing your full name for the signature and date it. There is nothing to edit in the draft order.

When you're ready you combine both documents as a single PDF attachment and send as an attachment in an email to claimresponses.cnbc@justice.gov.uk and CC in yourself. The claim number must be in the email subject field and in the body of the email just put: "Please find attached the defence and draft order in the matter of Vehicle Control Services Ltd v [your full name] Claim no.: [claim number]."

IN THE COUNTY COURT

Claim No: [Claim Number]

BETWEEN:

Vehicle Control Services Ltd
Claimant

- and -

[Defendant's Full Name]

Defendant

---

DEFENCE

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 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 (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 attaches to this defence a copy of a draft order approved by a district judge at another court. The court struck out the claim of its own initiative after determining that the Particulars of Claim failed to comply with CPR 16.4. The judge noted that the claimant had failed to:

(i) Set out the exact wording of the clause (or clauses) of the terms and conditions relied upon;

(ii) Adequately explain the reasons why the defendant was allegedly in breach of contract;

(iii) Provide separate, detailed Particulars of Claim as permitted under CPR PD 7C.5.2(2).

(iv) The court further observed that, given the modest sum claimed, requiring further case management steps would be disproportionate and contrary to the overriding objective. Accordingly, the judge struck out the claim outright rather
than permitting an amendment.

5. 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 for the Claimant’s failure to comply with CPR 16.4.

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

You are many months away from any Witness Statement (WS) deadlines, if ever.

You will next receive a notification that your defence as been sent to the claimant. DCB Legal will respond with a boilerplate response that their client intends to proceed.

You will next receive s Directions Questionnaire (DQ) and after that a telephone mediation appointment. Only after that will your case be allocated to your local county court where it will be reviewed by a case management judge who will issue directions. At that point the claim may be struck out or the claimant ordered to provide further PoC and you will be ordered to provide an amended defence in response or a hearing date will be set and any deadlines for submitting the WS.

If it get so to that point, around month before the hearing date, the claimant will have to pay the hearing fee. That is when this will then be discontinued.

Yes, it's a single page draft order.