**DISCONTINUED** County Court Business Centre Letter Received

[OliverJames]

Good morning Beagles,

This morning my parents called me to advise me that a letter from the county courts had arrived at their house for me? I have not lived at that address, nor have I been associated to that address for over 6yrs!

I have attached a copy of the claim to this post, and have gone on to the governments money claim website to acknowledge that I have received the claim, but there is no means for me to tell them I know nothing about the claim whatsoever!

Does anyone here know what this could relate to, and what the next best action is to counter it, or in the very least, get some clarity as to who is asking me for the thick end of £360?

Thanks

OllieJB

[charitynjw]

One thing for certain; if you don't ask, you definitely won't get!

[OliverJames]

well done it is over

Hi Mike770,

You are right, if I choose to do so, I can just let them walk away scott free, but I am not happy with how they have behaved during the process. As I understand it, that gives me the right to request my costs back via the court. These costs include the time I took out of my life to research, write and fight their baseless claim every step of the way. Fortunately, on the whole, the folk here have been incredibly helpful and supportive so it made that process much more manageable.

I plan to put my request in to the court and see how it lands.

[MIKE770]

well done it is over

[OliverJames]

Didn't the discontinuance letter that you received come from CEL?

Well there were 2 letters in the same envelope from CEL. 1 was their confirmation of cancellation, and 2 what looks like the official court document which was Notice of discontinuance

I assume the second was a form them printed off from the court website?

Since drafting my initial thread post this morning i have received the following email from the court;

Good afternoon,

Sorry for the delay. This case has now been marked as discontinued by the Claimant following an email received today. I can confirm the hearing 27th April 2018 has been vacated.

Regards,

[charitynjw]

Didn't the discontinuance letter that you received come from CEL?

[OliverJames]

charitynjw here is a VERY rough draft first copy.....what are your thoughts/tweaks/changes/advice to scrap in its entirety? The format may be completely incorrect so very happy to scrap and start again.....

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to you as the defendant in the above case having received a letter of discontinuance from yourselves as requested by Civil Enforcement Limited.

Following the receipt of this letter, and as a litigant in person fighting a speculative claim from a serial commercial pursuant, I would request you consider a request for me to claim unreasonable costs from Civil Enforcement for their unreasonable behaviour throughout this process as per CPR 24.14(2)(g) for the following reasons;

1. Civil Enforcement Limited deliberately backdated the Particulars Of Claim which were served separate to the claim form pursuant to CPR Rule 7.4 (1)(b).

The Claim form was issued on 2nd October, stating that the detailed Particulars of Claim would be provided to me within 14 days after service of the claim form. The Claim Form was therefore served on 7 October (5 days later, as set out in paragraph 5.7 of Practice Direction 7E which relates solely to MCOL claims). This means that the Particulars of Claim should have been served on or by 23 October (since 21/22 were a Saturday/Sunday). This would mean that they should have been posted by Friday 20 October. The time limits for service are clearly set out in Rules 6.3(b) and 6.20(b), and the requirement to serve separate Particulars within 14 days is contained in Rule 7.4(1)(b).

The further Particulars of Claim and covering letter were delivered by Royal Mail on Tuesday 24 October, however they were dated, and accompanied by a letter dated, 11 October 2017.

I cannot fathom any reason for the Claimant having backdated its further Particulars of Claim, other than to try to gain an advantage by making it appear that I have filed my defence late, or by confusing me into having to rush to file my defence prematurely.

I wrote to Civil Enforcement on several occasions requesting an explanation as to why they did this, but I received nothing back from them.

1. The particulars of claim that were provided by Civil Enforcement Limited were extremely vague,
2. On October 6^th I wrote to Civil Enforcement Limited to raise concerns that they were corresponding to my old address, and they decided to ignore this request, which showed their blatant disregard for the IPC code of practice for carrying out strict due diligence.

For avoidance of doubt, IPC code of practice (Page 33, final paragraph) clearly states that;

Before issuing court proceedings on any unpaid parking charge which is over 12 months old, the operator must first perform a suitable check of the defendant’s last known address.

As I mentioned in my first paragraph, Civil Enforcement Limited are a commercial claimant pursuing many other claims of this nature and must therefore have deep knowledge of, and understand, the Civil Procedure Rules and these sorts of blatant breaches should not be allowed because they prejudice Litigants in Person who are not versed in court procedures and the court rules. It is with some difficulty that I have understood the various obligations and time limits set out in the Civil Procedure Rules, as a Litigant in Person, whereas the commercial Claimant has no such excuse.

Getting to this point in the process has taken a considerable amount of my time, time that I have now lost due to them discontinuing their baseless case against me when they realised that I was not going to concede to their bully boy tactics.

I have outlined what I believe to be my reasonable costs incurred over the last 4 ½ months which I hope that you will agree they should have to reimburse.

My costs have been calculated as per CPR 46.5 (4) (b) and the relevant Practice Direction.

Research – 10hrs @ £19p/h = £190
Emails – 5hrs @ £19p/h = £95
Letters – 5hrs @ £19p/h = £95
Phone calls – 2hrs @ £19p/h = £38
Postage – 5 letters @ £0.65p = £3.25

Total costs = £421.25

[charitynjw]

cost what would you hope to claim back on???

Mainly the time spent on the case, plus 'incidentals'.
CEL have an abysmal track record of issuing court claims with scant regard for procedure, then discontinuing at the last minute.
The courts, I believe, are well aware of this

[charitynjw]

I may have a few questions about this....but in the first instance I have attached the notice of discontinuance. Is this the document that i need to email to the court along with a request for costs? If so, i will start to draft my costs sheet up now. Do you know if any examples that have been produced that I could take some inspiration from?

Thanks for everything!

Hi OliverJames

This (below) is an example of a costs schedule used by solicitors.
You wouldn't need to submit anything near as detailed, but it gives you an idea & may provide inspiration.
I'll give Amethyst a nudge for more suggestions.

https://formfinder.hmctsformfinder.j...k/n260-eng.pdf

[MIKE770]

cost what would you hope to claim back on???

[OliverJames]

In the email to the court (discontinuance copy), put a paragraph asking the courts to consider costs for CELs unreasonable behaviour throughout the proceedings. Give various examples.
Cite CPR 27.14(2)(g).
Attach a schedule of costs. (Time spent (you can ask for up to £19/hr....but be reasonable), incidentals (postage, copying docs etc).
The amount should be proportional to the case.
You might get it, you might not......but if you don't ask.......

I may have a few questions about this....but in the first instance I have attached the notice of discontinuance. Is this the document that i need to email to the court along with a request for costs? If so, i will start to draft my costs sheet up now. Do you know if any examples that have been produced that I could take some inspiration from?

Thanks for everything!

[Kati]

Congratulations OliverJames

Well done. to charitynjw and ostell too xx

[charitynjw]

What's the process for going for costs? I will get cracking on that first thing tomorrow....
In the email to the court (discontinuance copy), put a paragraph asking the courts to consider costs for CELs unreasonable behaviour throughout the proceedings. Give various examples.
Cite CPR 27.14(2)(g).
Attach a schedule of costs. (Time spent (you can ask for up to £19/hr....but be reasonable), incidentals (postage, copying docs etc).
The amount should be proportional to the case.
You might get it, you might not......but if you don't ask.......

Thank you and ostell so much for all your help on this...you have been amazing and uber responsive! Couldn't have asked for better advice...

####

[Pipsy]

Thats brilliant new Oliverjames hopefully i hear something like that too ...regards Pipsy

[OliverJames]

Are you going to try for costs?

Has they sent the letter to my address.....that being the same address the court have been using and communicating using, including communications that they have been included in, then probably not. But they didn't, and as such i want to make them suffer and squirm a bit!

What's the process for going for costs? I will get cracking on that first thing tomorrow....

Thank you and ostell so much for all your help on this...you have been amazing and uber responsive! Couldn't have asked for better advice...