DCB Legal Court Claim for Alleged PCN of 4 Years

[hitman126]

Hello,


Late last year, I received a letter of claim from DCB Legal informing me that they were acting
on behalf of a client(CP Plus Ltd) and demanded immediate settlement of an alleged PCN dating
back to March 2017 which I have absolutely no recollection of, let alone the alleged contravention
itself.

Acting on advice gathered via some third parties, I responded to DCB's letter by challenging them
on a number of key points which not surprisingly, prompted a swift reply from them. In order not
to risk compromising my defence, I've opted not to place extracts of the aforementioned key points
from my letter into this public domain, but would be happy to share them privately with the right
person(s) on this forum willing to offer genuine and sincere assistance with no ulterior motive.

DCB Legal have since proceeded to submit a money claim against me in a County Court and I've in the
last few days received the Claim Form from the court, with an Issue Date of 31 Dec 2020. My intention
now is to submit an Acknowledgement of Service within the next couple of days, but I'm keen to look
beyond that by desperately beginning to prepare a cast-iron defence to submit to the court.

I'll therefore be extremely grateful for any advice or assistance in putting together a
sound defence statement to help me see off this irritation at such a challenging time in
our respective lives.

PS: I'm not sure how much this is going to go against me and whether it is too late to do so, but I did
not submit a SAR request to CP Plus Limited and rather chose to deal solely with DCB Legal.

[ostell]

So, as I said on the Pepipoo forum, submit your SAR to CP Plus now. It may take 30 days but it will come in handy later.

A CPR 31.14 request to DCBL immediately.

Some sort of idea what this is about and your communications so far so that people have an idea what you are talking about otherwise working blind

[hitman126]

So, as I said on the Pepipoo forum, submit your SAR to CP Plus now. It may take 30 days but it will come in handy later.

A CPR 31.14 request to DCBL immediately.

Some sort of idea what this is about and your communications so far so that people have an idea what you are talking about otherwise working blind

Thank you ostell.
By the way reading some other forum posts, there are some suggestions that a CPR 31.14 also serves the purpose of a SAR and therefore supersedes the latter. Is this a valid opinion?

[ostell]

The items are 2 different beasts and are directed to two different bodies.

[hitman126]

So I submitted a CPR 31.14 and SAR requests to DCB Legal and Highview Parking respectively
and have now received the below responses from them.

On their part, DCB Legal replied that as a claim has been issued, they are not obliged to
provide evidence at this stage unless ordered to do so by the Court.

Highview Parking on the other hand have requested I complete a return a form they've sent
me, as they are required under GDPR to validate my identity prior to releasing personal data.

Looking further, I am now rather keen to begin putting together a defence statement and would
be extremely grateful for any assistance or advice towards that.

[ostell]

Did you use the CPR request template from this site? The only reason they can refuse is if the claim is in the small claims track. It is not in any track at the moment and they should be responding. You can try again and point that out.

If the highview questions are not too intrusive then answer them but demand that they stick to the 30 day requirement.

Start preparing your defence but if you don't truly know fully the details of what it is about then enter the failure of the solicitors to respond to your request and ask the court for permission to submit an amended defence, at the claimants costs, when the documents are received.

[hitman126]

I've read through the "Example Defence" provided in the Shortcuts section of this forum. I'm not entirely sure it is applicable for a PCN defence for a private parking company claim (in my case, at a supermarket car park).

Would be grateful for some clarification on the type of cases for which this defence template applies.

[hitman126]

I finally managed to put together a draft of my 3-page defence statement (attached). Would appreciate a review and feedback on the arguments put across in my statement.

Thanks folks.

[hitman126]

So here are the latest updates to my case:

[DCB Legal]
On the 2nd of this month, I received an email from DCB Legal (with a completed N180 Directions Questionnaire attached)
informing me that having reviewed the content of my defence, their client had confirmed their intention to proceed with the claim against me.
The next paragraph of the email then informed me that the Court would direct both parties to file directions questionnaires in due course and in anticipation of that, a copy of the client's completed questionnaire was attached.

They then went on to add that without prejudice to any of the above and in order to assist the Court in achieving its overriding objective, their client may be prepared to consider a mutual settlement of the case and should I wish to discuss this further, contact them on a given phone number.

[County Court Business Centre]
A few days after the DCB Legal email, I received a letter from the Northampton CCBC dated 5 March 2021, titled "Notice of Proposed Allocation to the Small Claims Track". The letter instructs me to complete the Small Claims Directions Questionnaire (N180) and file it with the court office by 22 March 2021, also serving copies on all other parties. Also attached to the letter is an HM Courts and Tribunals Service form inviting me to consider an out-of-court mediation.

[What Next?]
Would greatly appreciate advice on how best to proceed next, following the above updates.

[NicB]

hitman126 - can I please ask what happened next? I'm in this exact situation today and unsure how to proceed..

[hitman126]

hitman126 - can I please ask what happened next? I'm in this exact situation today and unsure how to proceed..

NicB so in my case, I completed and submitted and/or received a number of prerequisite documentation which I'll list in no particular order as follows:

1. Acknowledgment of Service
2. CPR 31.14 and SAR requests to DCB Legal and Highview Parking of which the former declined to oblige. Highview Parking however did oblige.
3. My Defence Statement (a response to which DCB Legal then sent the letter described next).
4. A letter from DCB advising that their client wished to proceed with the case, but also extending an olive branch for settlement outside court. I declined.
5. Small Claims Directions Questionnaire (N180) in which I completely rejected any proposal for the case to be referred to the Small Claims Mediation Svc.

Following the submission of my N180, I received an acknowledgement from the court and only this week, finally received notification that the case will now be heard in court in May 2022, which suits me fine .

Any delay or wasting of time endured by Highview Parking is music to my ears, as it hopefully will get them to ponder and reflect whether it is worth their while having to wait an entire year for adjudication over some stupid and paltry PCN. Having said that, I look forward to the hearing as I'm 200% confident of my defence.

[NicB]

hitman126 Thank you very much for the update! Will help with my next steps ! Good luck, though sure you won't need it!

[Jack83]

NicB so in my case, I completed and submitted and/or received a number of prerequisite documentation which I'll list in no particular order as follows:

1. Acknowledgment of Service
2. CPR 31.14 and SAR requests to DCB Legal and Highview Parking of which the former declined to oblige. Highview Parking however did oblige.
3. My Defence Statement (a response to which DCB Legal then sent the letter described next).
4. A letter from DCB advising that their client wished to proceed with the case, but also extending an olive branch for settlement outside court. I declined.
5. Small Claims Directions Questionnaire (N180) in which I completely rejected any proposal for the case to be referred to the Small Claims Mediation Svc.

Following the submission of my N180, I received an acknowledgement from the court and only this week, finally received notification that the case will now be heard in court in May 2022, which suits me fine .

Any delay or wasting of time endured by Highview Parking is music to my ears, as it hopefully will get them to ponder and reflect whether it is worth their while having to wait an entire year for adjudication over some stupid and paltry PCN. Having said that, I look forward to the hearing as I'm 200% confident of my defence.

Hi,

Has there been any changes to this since?

[hitman126]

Hi,

Has there been any changes to this since?

Hi, Jack83 yes there's been some further developments and it's all good news.

I got contacted by DCB Legal a few weeks ago, informing me that they and/or Highview Parking had finally decided to throw in the towel and that they'd also advised the court as such. The case therefore is now completely dead!!

[Dan82]

Hi,

I’ve also Received a letter from DCB legal saying they are pursuing a debt for penalty charge dated back 2018 on behalf of UKPC , the only thing here is I’ve been given this ticket maliciously on behalf of UK PC While parking in my resident bay where I’ve been parking for past four years on this occasion a parking attendant was unable to see the parking permit hence I’ve been given a ticket . I did not pay this ticket because I believe it’s been given wrongly.
Just to avoid the further threats from the CP legal I made a payment of £40 and agreed to make a payment for further £60 which is equals £100 original penalty fine .
however I have refused to pay £60 as the as the letter was suggesting the debt is £160 because I read that there is a unanimous decision regarding this matter by the judges all over country.
Court consider this £60 charge by legal companies as an abuse of process.
However, I have informed them that I will only be paying them £100 per the original penalty fine and not extra £60 added on top.

I also added in my email to the admin staff of DCB legal that if they want extra £60 payment on top of penalty charge , they will have to seek legal action against me by taking me to court.

I felt harassed and pressurised in being making this payment I still believe UKPC which was working on behalf of management company have maliciously pursued this charge against me while giving me a parking fine in my own resident bay.

Any advise will be much appreciated.