Bw legal/excel court claim pcn

[dyl4]

Hi

Please could someone help with some advice....

I have received a claim form from Northampton county court for a parking charge 18 months ago, the claim is date 29th July.

I have acknowledged the claim online and have started researching to write my defence, on doing so I have come accross a 'part 18 request mentioned' a few times but I'm not entirely sure whether this is relevant to me now? Or what sort of questions I should include in this?

I don't have any details of the original PCN just the name of the car park which is one that I have never been to so I know I wasn't the driver - can I ask for a copy of the original PCN and NTK??

Many Thanks

[Kati]

Re: Bw legal/excel court claim pcn

tagging [MENTION=5354]mystery1[/MENTION] xx

[mystery1]

Re: Bw legal/excel court claim pcn

Part 18 is relevant but not in that form as you won't make an application to force compliance thus it's no more than a request for information and the civil procedure rules expect the parties to narrow the issues for the judge so they should provide relevany information to you as you should to them if asked.

Sanitise the form and post it up.

M1

[dyl4]

Re: Bw legal/excel court claim pcn

This is the claim form

[dyl4]

Re: Bw legal/excel court claim pcn

Would this be ok for a request of information?



IN THE NORTHAMPTON COUNTY COURT CLAIM NO:

BETWEEN:

Excel Parking Services Ltd [Claimant]

and

[Defendant]

PART 18 REQUEST FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

To: Excel Parking Services Ltd

Please answer the following questions:
1. What is the basis of the claim. Is Excel Parking Services Ltd making a claim as an agent of the landowner or making the claim as occupier in their own right?
2. Is the charge based on damages for breach of contract, or is it alleged to be the price payable for parking under contract? 
(a). If the charge is for damages for breach of contract, please provide your justification of this sum.
(b). If the charge is the price payable for parking under contract, please provide a valid VAT invoice for this ‘service’.
3. Please provide a copy of the parking charge notice and notice to keeper in relation to this claim.

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 Excel Parking Services Ltd

[mystery1]

Re: Bw legal/excel court claim pcn

Part 18 is a bizarre thing really. It doesn't apply to small claims track although until allocation it's not on small claims track. However they invariably do not reply and it's not worth an application to force compliance due to the costs and not being guaranteed to win.

I suggest a normal letter/email is just as effective.

Dear BW Legal,


I, as defendant, am in receipt of your court claim number xxxxxxxx in which the claimant is Excel Parking Services Ltd .


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 Legal 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 comply with the over riding objective to narrow down the issues for the court i would also ask these 3 questions.

1. What is the basis of the claim. Is Excel Parking Services Ltd making a claim as an agent of the landowner or making the claim as occupier in their own right?
2. Is the charge based on damages for breach of contract, or is it alleged to be the price payable for parking under contract? 
(a). If the charge is for damages for breach of contract, please provide your justification of this sum.
(b). If the charge is the price payable for parking under contract, please provide a valid VAT invoice for this ‘service’.
3. Please provide a copy of the parking charge notice and notice to keeper in relation to this claim.




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


M1