ParkingEye Court claim (motorway services)

[lordash]

Hi all,

I am currently defending a claim made by parkingeye for overstaying parking in the motorway services.

This was a claim I had defended some time ago, however due to Covid the court dates had been delayed until late September. I had also been ill and had personal problems to deal with, which has led me to completely forget all about the upcoming case until I received the claimants court bundle last week.

I have been deliberately vague about exact details / dates / etc. as I do not want to be identified by the claimant.

A brief summary of what has happened:
- Late 2019 - when the parking violation was alleged to have occurred.
- Various points over 2020 - parking tickets received for an overinflated sum (£100) - ignored.
- Late 2020 - Claim form received from PE.
- Late 2020 - Defence form returned to court and PE.
- Late 2020 - Defence returned to court and PE.
- Early 2021 - PE Directions questionnaire received
- Early 2021 - My Directions questionnaire returned to PE and court.
- Early 2021 - PE's response to defence received.
- June 2021 - Letter from court confirming court date set for Late September
- July 2021 - Court bundle received from PE.

Unfortunately, the dates have crept up on me and I have not yet prepared a court bundle for my defence. I was wondering if there was any information on how to prepare this? Unfortunately, I think I might be out of time on getting this prepared, as I think the paperwork I received from the court said that the bundle should have been served on Friday.

I am happy to attach redacted scans of the paperwork if this will be of use.

Thanks for all your help on this.

[lordash]

By the way, the claim was for £175.

Part of me feels sickened to do this, but I am tempted to pay the money to make this go away. In no way is this an admission of guilt, it is just down to it being easier to pay the charge rather than have to deal with the stress of pursuing a court case in amongst the other things that I am dealing with right now.

It does bother me that if I were to do this, PE have effectively gained £175 through their bullying tactics, but at the end of the day I have to take into account the value of my time in fighting this versus my other responsibilities (which have grown since I filed my defence about 9 months ago).

However, I am not sure that it is possible to pay this at such a late stage.

[ostell]

Ignoring notices has not been advised since 2012

The total charge from PE for court is very reasonable compared with the others out there, often well over £200. PE usually get the process correct anyway.

You can pay on the steps of the courthouse if you want to. Phone up PE and make them an offer but don't be ridiculous. Remember they have to pay their rep to appear in court and they can't recover that cost so you paying early will be cheaper for them