County Court Claim Form - MET Parking via DCB Legal

Denji11

Hello all ! 

It's been 9 months nearly, hope everyone is well. 

So I have not received any further communication from the court nor DCB, so as per the DCB legal discontinuance pattern, I am here: 

• Court claim issued  - Yes
• Defence completed - Yes
• Hearing date given - No
• Witness Statement deadline dictated by the court - No
• Phone call from DCB Legal to defendant - Possibly but didn't answer
• Email to defendant from DCB Legal with 'Without Prejudice Offer to Settle' - No 
• If no response from/refusal by defendant, email from DCB Legal - 'Notification of Discontinuation' - No
• Confirmation of discontinuation from the court follows - No

From anyone's experience, how long do they make you wait before any further contact/discontinuation? 

Many thanks

LDast

The claim is either stayed or was discontinued but you were not sent a copy of the NoD. Call the CNBC and ask if the claim has been discontinued. If it has, you must email DCB Legal and instruct them to send you a copy of the NoD.

If it simply stayed, that is as good as a discontinuation but you won't receive an NoD. If the claimant ever wanted to revive the claim, they would have to pay an application fee of £303 with no guarantee that a judge would let the stay be lifted and would likely dismiss the claim unless they have a compelling reason for the delay in progressing the claim.

KeithP

As the Claim was transferred to your local court back in January, phone your local court and ask them what's going on.

Denji11

Ok so after 2 hours of waiting on a call first with the CNBC and secondly with the local court. I have been told that the case is still open it just hasn't been picked up by any district judge yet! after 9 months

So I will still wait to be contacted by the court with a potential hearing date. 

Many thanks

Denji11

9 months of stress and worry thinking I have missed an email or letter I might add. 

LDast

That doesn't sound right. I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong. While it’s not typical for a claim to remain active after 9 months of inactivity, it’s possible due to court delays or administrative issues

However, under the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR), if no action is taken by the claimant to progress the claim for a certain period of time, the claim can be automatically stayed. Specifically, according to CPR 15.11, if a claim has been defended but no further steps have been taken by the claimant (such as applying for judgment, requesting a hearing, or taking other necessary steps), the proceedings are automatically stayed after six months from the date the defence was filed.

If the case has been stayed due to inactivity, it means that the court will not take any further action unless one of the parties applies to have the stay lifted. The stay essentially pauses the proceedings, and nothing will happen until the stay is lifted.

If the court is overwhelmed, cases might not be processed as promptly as they should be, and the stay might not have been automatically applied or recognised in the system. Court staff might have overlooked the stay or it might not have been automatically enforced as per CPR 15.11 due to administrative backlog or errors.

The person you spoke with might not have been fully aware of the specific procedural status of your case, leading to the information that the claim is still active. The case might technically be stayed, but this hasn’t been formally acknowledged or updated in the system.

If the claimant wants to continue with the case after a stay has been imposed, they would need to apply to the court to lift the stay. This would usually involve filing an application notice (Form N244) and paying the appropriate fee, £303. The claimant would also need to provide reasons for the delay and explain why the stay should be lifted.

If the claim is indeed active despite the delay, you should continue monitoring the situation. However, if the claimant doesn’t take further action, it could work in your favour, especially if the case eventually gets struck out due to inactivity.

Denji11

Hello all, 

Hope everyone is well. So after months of waiting and losing hair I received an email from the court earlier this week stating:

Good morning

Thank you for your email below. I have copied in the defendant for ease.

From our system I can see that the file was meant to be transferred to <court location> in January 2024 but the file was never received.

Please could you send copies of all documents to <court Location> either by email or post to the address below so we can refer the file to a judge for directions.

Apologies for the delay and inconvenience caused,

This was off the back of DCB emailing them asking for a Notice of Allocation.

How long can this really go on for we are already going back 7 years!

I have emailed the court asking if I also need to resubmit the documents, as they were submitted into an online portal, I may not have all the original copies.

Many thanks and nice to be back  

Gr1pr

Contact the CNBC and ask for copies of the case, especially your MCOL defence plus a copy of the N180 you submitted, use a SAR if you have to

You could email DCB Legal and ask for them too

Once a litigation claim has started,  it can take longer than the 6 year statute to pursue a claim to a hearing 

Clearly there has been a delay at your local court,  once the documents have been seen by a judge,  that judge will decide what must be done,  or will strike it out

Coupon-mad

Also tell them both if your address has changed of course.

Denji11

Hey all, 

So I contacted the court asking if I needed to resend my documents and whether there is no trace of the documents from when they were originally submitted. 

They kind of ignored my question and have responded with:

"Thank you for your email. The Claimant has provided the Court with the documents needed to create a duplicate file, and as such the file has now been referred to a judge for directions. We will update you once the Judge has given directions."

I am not entirely comfortable with the claimant providing my documents to the court and judge !? 

Any advice on what's next... feel like this is getting really messy. 

Many thanks