BW Legal and VCS County Court Claim

[Lamilad]

Hello, I would appreciate some advice/help as I've just received a County Court Claim for 'stopping' in a prohibited area, business park. I was NOT the driver.

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I have prepared a '18' letter to send of to BW:

PART 18 REQUEST FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

To BW Legal Services Ltd

I write with regards to the above mentioned County Court Claim. Please answer the following questions:-

1. What is the basis of the claim? How has Vehicle Control Services Limited asserted the defendant , who was the Keeper of the vehicle, has liability for the Charge
2. Is Vehicle Control Services Limited making a claim as an agent of the landholder or is Vehicle Control Services Limited making the claim as occupier in their own right?
3. Is the amount claimed by Vehicle Control Services Limited for a genuine pre estimate of loss for a breach of contract or a contractual sum?
4. If the contract has been conveyed by the use of signage on site, please confirm you have copies of the signs on which you rely and confirm these are the signs in situ on the date of the event. Please also confirm the date these signs were installed, for example, a works schedule, maintenance record or invoice for the work. Please confirm you have copies of all relevant documents and you can produce them in advance of any hearing at Court.
5. Were there signs at the entrance to the site on the date in question? Did these meet the British Parking Association's Code of Practice Appendix B (Entrance signs) or the Independent Parking Committee’s Schedule 1 (Please indicate)
6. Confirm you have a copy of the PCN Terms and Conditions on date of event and are able to produce the copy in advance of any hearing.


TAKE NOTICE THAT YOU ARE REQUIRED TO ANSWER THE ABOVE REQUEST WITHIN 14 DAYS OF SERVICE OF THE SAME UPON YOU. I also require that answers to these questions be verified by a Statement of Truth by an authorised signatory of BW Legal.

[R0b]

Re: BW Legal and VCS County Court Claim

Hello

I've tagged @mystery1 for assistance, but just FYI Part 18 requests are not applicable in small claims which is likely what BW Legal will say. If it has not been allocated to the small claims track yet, you could argue this but courts have generally said that if the claim is likely to be allocated to a certain track, then those rules are to apply.

[Lamilad]

Re: BW Legal and VCS County Court Claim

Found this on another thread, exactly same circumstances as my PCN, same wording, same BW Legal, would it be better to send this off rather than the proposed 18 letter?

Dear BW Legal,

I, as defendant, am in receipt of your court claim number xxxxxxxx in which the claimant is Vehicle Control Services limited.

I would like to bring to your attention CPR 16.4 which centres around the contents of the claim form and practice direction 16 particularly 7.5 This case should be repleaded as it is neither concise nor has any information which must be specified.

CPR 16


Contents of the claim form
16.2
(1) The claim form must –
(a) contain a concise statement of the nature of the claim


Contents of the particulars of claim
16.4
(1) Particulars of claim must include –
(a) a concise statement of the facts on which the claimant relies;


Practice direction 16


Other matters to be included in particulars of claim








7.5 Where a claim is based upon an agreement by conduct, the particulars of claim must specify the conduct relied on and state by whom, when and where the acts constituting the conduct were done.







Further the particulars of claim are signed BW Lgal services limited which is a clear violation of cpr.

CPR 22

Documents to be verified by a statement of truth
22.1
(1) The following documents must be verified by a statement of truth –
(a) a statement of case



Practice direction 22

Who may sign the statement of truth
3.1 In a statement of case, a response or an application notice, the statement of truth must be signed by

(2) the legal representative of the party or litigation friend.

3.7 Where a party is legally represented, the legal representative may sign the statement of truth on his behalf. The statement signed by the legal representative will refer to the client’s belief, not his own. In signing he must state the capacity in which he signs and the name of his firm where appropriate.

3.9 The individual who signs a statement of truth must print his full name clearly beneath his signature.

3.10 A legal representative who signs a statement of truth must sign in his own name and not that of his firm or employer.


Practice direction 7E

Signature
10 Any provision of the CPR which requires a document to be signed by any person is satisfied by that person entering their name on an online form.


In order to ascertain your response and see if i need to take further action i would ask for an extension to the time for filing a defence pursuant to CPR 15.5 and seek the full 28 days extra and look forward to your cooperation on this. Failure to sort out you case or the issues identified will lead me to consider a summary judgement application particularly if time starts to get short.

Yours etc

[R0b]

Re: BW Legal and VCS County Court Claim

There is nothing wrong asking for the information you have set out under the Part 18 letter, you just can't state it is a Part 18 request. Both parties should have a cards on the table approach should share information that they have available to them but the usual disclosure proceedings again don't normally apply to small claims. However if a party deliberately refuses to answer or become obstructive in their response to further information, then it could be considered unreasonable conduct.

I am not sure why you would need to send the letter above regarding CPR 16. Why is there a violation of CPR 16 which is signed by BW Legal who are instructed by VCS and are entitled to sign it on their behalf (PD 22 says a statement of truth can be signed by the legal rep of the party and BW Legal is the rep for the claimant).

What exactly is it you are seeking to do? If you can clarify that then we can help you further. Mystery1 is the expert on PCN's so it might be best to wait to find out what he says on the matter. If you press ahead you might just embarrass yourself by referencing things in the letter that is incorrect or unnecessary.

[Lamilad]

Re: BW Legal and VCS County Court Claim

What I'm seeking to do is to get BW Legal to 'back down', from my research its pretty clear that these CC actions are just an attempt to frighten people into paying up sooner. If I can pick holes in the paperwork, such as not being signed by a named person just the company, then I think thats fair game.

I fully understand not wanting to fire of something that isn't checked and prepared to fight these shysters.
From what I can agther they have never taken any Court action to a hearing.

[mystery1]

Re: BW Legal and VCS County Court Claim

I agree with [MENTION=71570]R0b[/MENTION] regarding part 18 although it does show you are trying to narrow the issues down and generally being reasonable where as they are not.

As for the letter, i would send it. Are they chasing the driver or keeper ? What is the cause of action ? What terms were breached ? etc etc Bare and nondescript is how i'd describe the particulars and had it have been a larger claim i'd suggest a summary judgement would be appropriate but for a low level claim it'll never be worth the cost.

M1

[Lamilad]

Re: BW Legal and VCS County Court Claim

Thanks for response M1 and Rob, M1 which letter should I send the one I proposed under '18' heading, I'll remove any reference to Part 18, or the breaches of CPR one I found which you suggested on another thread should be sent.
My case is exactly the same as that one, International Business Park, no stopping route near airport.

They are chasing the 'keeper' although the debt collectors caught the same off guard and they answered phone a while ago and told them 'Not paying the car wasn't parked it stopped for a second to let a passenger out', they sent a letter to this effect....Although I understand the Keeper has never actually said he was driving

[mystery1]

Re: BW Legal and VCS County Court Claim

Both are fine if you haven't filed a defence. Only the information one if you have.

M1

[Lamilad]

Re: BW Legal and VCS County Court Claim

UPDATE........filed Defence on line, now received the DQ to return to the Court. Do I now complete the defence statement or just return the DQ to the Court and BW Legal?
Thanks

[mystery1]

Re: BW Legal and VCS County Court Claim

Defence statement is not really a valid term. You should have filed a defence already. You probably mean skeleton argument and the answer is no, you have no need to file one but if you do it'll be after you assessed the evidence and that may not come until 2 weeks before trial.

M1