Legal On appeal Rohan Krishnarao, head of legal client strategy at BW Legal, explains how the firm successfully appealed against strike-out orders on claims incorporating contractual debtrecovery costs for the private parking industry n 16 July 2020, His Honour Judge (HHJ) Parkes QC, sitting at Salisbury on appeal from Southampton, allowed the Britannia Parking Groups appeal of the order by District Judge (DJ) Grand on 11 November 2019 (Britannia Parking Group Ltd v Matthew Semark-Jullien [2020] EW Misc 12 (CC)). The appeal judge found that the striking out of the claim on the basis that it had been found to be an abuse of process, that the claimant knew the claim was inflated and unlawful, and the judges reliance on ParkingEye v Beavis and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to support his decision, was wrong. The claim is a simple one common to many operators an unpaid parking charge notice (PCN) of 100, plus 60 in respect of the claimants costs of recovery. The whole claim was struck out by DJ Taylor on 23 May 2019, before allowing Britannia to file its evidence, on the basis that the recovery charge was deemed not recoverable under the Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) 2012 (Schedule 4), nor under ParkingEye v Beavis. Before DJ Grand, considering the claimants application to set aside DJ Taylors order, the strike out was upheld for slightly varied reasons, which did not include PoFA, but did add the Consumer O Rights Act 2015. Key statements On appeal, following substantive legal and technical arguments lodged by BW Legal and legal counsel, HHJ Parkes QC very carefully set out his understanding of the issues, the submitted arguments and his decision in a short but succinct written judgment. The key statements of the appeal judge which are set out in a way that should be helpful to all stakeholders and affirm the position taken by BW Legal in respect of parking claims are: On the striking out of the claim: First, it is wrong in principle to strike out a claim as an abuse of process on the footing that the claimant knows it to be inflated and unlawful, when there is no evidence that the claimant knows anything of the The claim is a simple one common to many operators an unpaid parking charge notice of 100, plus 60 in respect of the claimants costs of recovery 42 britishparking.co.uk PN Sep20 pp42-43 Legal Feature.indd 42 20/08/2020 10:21