Received a PCN whilst outside of the country

[JParker]

Hello,

I am continuing this thread from FTLA. Please see the latest post below, and thanks for any help.

“Hi everyone

I have received now a letter with a date for a court hearing relating to this, which I’ll attach here.

If anyone can offer advice on what steps to take next, it is much appreciated.

https://ibb.co/tMmx5W79
https://ibb.co/tTpQSNzF
“

[b789]

Welcome to the forum @JParker. Can you provide a link to the existing thread over on FTLA so I can get up to speed with your case.

Was you have shown is the procedural judge's orders. It is bog standard stuff. you have a hearing date and the claimant must pay the £27 trial fee no later than 4 weeks before the hearing date. Both parties must submit their witness statements no later than 2 weeks before the hearing date.

Which firm of bulk litigators is representing (not so) Smart Parking? If it is DCB Legal, you can guarantee with greater than 99% certainty that they will discontinue just before the trial fee has to be paid.

[JParker]

Hi @b789

Absolutely. Here’s the link to the FTLA thread.

 https://www.ftla.uk/private-parking-tick...#msg128504

Yes, it is DCB legal involved. Let’s hope so!

[b789]

Yes, it's DCB Legal. If you've heard nothing by 18th September, I suggest you call the court and check whether the £27 trial fee has been paid. In theory, you should receive an N279 Notice of Discontinuance before then. If you haven't, and the trial fee hasn't been paid, the claim is struck out.

I will place odds of 100:1 if anyone wants to take me up on a bet that DCB legal will never take this as far as a hearing.

Expect DCB Legal to try and make contact with you before then to try and settle for a lower amount. DO NOT settle with them. It is just the precursor to their discontinuance.

[JParker]

Hi all,

Below is the email from DCB Legal notifying me that they have discontinued the case. Thank you to everyone who helped with this and I hope that this thread is useful to others. Now how do I claim compensation for the hours of my life that this company took from me in fighting this?!

“Dear ,

We act for the Claimant in the above matter.

Our client has instructed us to discontinue Court proceedings and close our file. Therefore, please find enclosed the Claimant’s N279 Notice of Discontinuance for your records. 

The attached has also been filed with the Court.

We will now proceed to close our file accordingly.

Kind Regards,



Sophia Mthiyane



DCB Legal Ltd”

[b789]

Congratulations @JParker. As I explained early on in the process, this is how they try to make their money: by intimidating the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree. You have shown that by understanding the process and not giving in to fear of their threats, they will eventually capitulate.

The discontinuance means that the claimant has formally ended its court claim against you. The case will not proceed to a hearing and you owe them nothing under that claim.

I hope this has also been a useful learning curve. No one is simply "in trouble", nor can their credit rating be damaged, just because a powerless debt collector sends threatening letters and hopes the recipient does not understand the process.

Another one bites the dust.

As for compensation, I would take the win and move on. You cannot simply claim compensation for their behaviour. You would have to start your own County Court claim, pay the fee and persuade a judge that their conduct crossed the fairly high threshold for harassment rather than merely amounting to aggressive debt collection or litigation conduct.

You have achieved the important result: the claim is over, you owe them nothing, and you now understand the process well enough not to be intimidated by this sort of thing again. That is probably worth more than pursuing a separate claim with uncertain prospects.