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A question about : Help

I have to go to court to appeal my car park fine. I have never been to court before and I don't know what to expect. I have to gather my evidence together and submit it to the court. What sort of stuff are they expecting me to submit. All I have is my reasons for why I didn't buy a ticket. Are they expecting more than this?
It is a private car park I was parked at. It was a big industrial estate after 6pm and I do not live in the area where I was. All other industrial estates I have been to have been free parking and it was after 6pm so I never even thought I would have to buy a ticket.
I received a fine through the post of Ј60 if I paid within 14 days or Ј100 if I paid after. I was parked there for less than 1 hour so this seemed such an unfair amount of money to have to pay. Local council charges were Ј35 (which I would have paid). I appealled the charge and 'lost' the appeal and now it is at the stage of court. It seems so unfair for a genuine mistake. This has been going on for so long now and it is bad luck that the court date has come through when I should be on my honeymoon. I have the stress of trying to plan a wedding and now having to gather my evidence also.

Please Help.

Best answers:

• You need to attack the legal basis behind it all - there's no loss, they don't have standing to issue the invoice, there's no contract, there's no liability.
  It's all in the newbies thread. Grab a coffee and read through it.
• You don't say who is the PPC. That could be important. (e.g. if MET, they usually pull out when their claim is properly defended).
  Check out the Parking Prankster's website - he has a good guide for defending such court claims. Whilst it's based around Parking Eye claims, the same points generally apply to all PPCs.
• I would also suggest you wise up on legal terms and no longer refer to it as a "fine" , its not a "fine" , its an INVOICE , always was, always will be (private parking charge = invoice)
  so read the post in the NEWBIES sticky thread referring to court claims, possibly you can get it stayed until after the honeymoon, or until after tomorrows BEAVIS case gets decided on next month (its verdict)
  I suppose there are various ways you can go about this, although if you have an actual court date you must be part way through the process already
  plenty of reading to do, maybe consult PPAL at pranksters or at cowboys websites, maybe pay for a defence, get a receipt and claim it back if you win (like that guy did with his DEAL case)
• Thank you for your quick responses. It was a excel parking car park. As you can see I need a lot of help so will look at the stuff you have advised me to do and start referring to it as an invoice. The court date isn't until May but I have to submit my evidence by 9th March so not much time left.
  Thanks again.
• Do you have to submit the evidence defence by then, or simply acknowledge the claim by then? (If the latter then that gives you a further 28 days to file a defence).
• The letter says-
  'By 4pm on 9th March 2015 you must file at court and serve on your opponent'
• I won't claim to understand what that exactly means. Hopefully someone else will see this and clarify.
• Is the letter you have actually from a Court? Or is it from a debt collector? It isn't quite clear.