PCN County Court Claim Defence Advice

MW33

Hello

Just an update mainly as the information may help others and perhaps might help regarding indicating the current intent of the claimants although I understand my experiences may be applicable to me only and not necessarily an indicator of widespread current practices.

I had my mediation phone call today.

Original claim (Euro Car Parks/DCB Legal) was for £269.96
Initial settlement offer made to me by (Euro Car Parks/DCB Legal) £200.00
I refused the settlement offer, made no counter offer of settlement and stated I wanted to go to court.
A second settlement offer was made to me by (Euro Car Parks/DCB Legal) £135.00
I refused the second settlement offer, made no counter offer of settlement and stated I wanted to go to court.
Mediation session ended (I believe simply part of the process after two offers of settlement).

Many thanks, I'm hoping I will receive a notice of withdrawal prior to needing to submit a witness statement but we'll see.

Gr1pr

Standard stuff,  they should eventually discontinue in several months time,  just before the hearing fee is due next year 

MW33

Hello Gr1pr
Many thanks, I'm hopeful they will and I'll keep the post updated.

MW33

Hello

I have another update just in case the information is useful.

I have today received an email from DCB Legal offering to settle my claim for the sum of £100 which is £35 less than their lowest offer which was made during the mediation process. They advised that they are allowing 5 days to make the payment and if I choose not to settle they will continue down the court route.

I do not intend to respond to this email and simply ignore it unless any advice suggests I should make a response, either way, I certainly do not intend to make any payment.

Many thanks

MW33

Hello again

I have today received my N157 letter notice of allocation to the small claims track (hearing), dated 06/11/25, it was posted in error to a business premises near to me and luckily they have posted it to me quickly otherwise I could have missed some deadlines. My court date is 05/12/25 and the claimant (Euro Car Park Limited/DCB Legal) have until 4.00pm on 17/11/25 to pay the court trial fee.

The receipt of this letter may explain the email sent to me a couple of days ago from DCB Legal offering a £100 settlement, my assumption being they were prompted by the receipt of the letter themselves.

I have spent this morning trawling through example witness statements and I am setting about completing mine a.s.a.p. with my own circumstances to the fore. I believe I have until end of business 20/11/25 to submit my WS and I will post on my thread what I have produced in the hope that one of the people who have already helped me may be able to review because I really do not want to lose this case after putting in so much effort to get to this stage.

Many thanks

Coupon-mad

They'll discontinue this coming week. 

Gr1pr

But keep checking your inbox and spam folders for their N279 discontinuation document,  probably before 4pm on Monday,  then post a redacted picture of it for Umkomaas to add to the thread of shame 

MW33

Many thanks Coupon-mad and Gr1pr for your prompt replies.

I really do hope you are correct about discontinuation as I am nervous about going to court although determined and defiant so hopefully that will pull me through if the worst case scenario happens.

I will continue to work on my WS over the coming weekend just in case and I will check my spam folders for an email from DCB Legal, I have already suffered from an email ending up in my spam folder from the court when they notified me of my mediation appointment, I only found out when the reminder text arrived the day before the appointment and luckily I was able to rearrange things to be available!

I will of course keep the thread updated and hopefully if a positive result happens for me I will send anything relevant to Umkomaas.

Thanks again.

MW33

Hello

The date to pay the court trial fee was today 17/11/25 until 4.00pm, I have checked my email inbox and spam folders and I have not received anything from DCB Legal.

I will phone the court tomorrow to try and find out if the court trial fee has been paid or a discontinuation notice filed.

I'm a little nervous about submitting my WS which as per my previous post I calculate to be by end of business this Thursday 20/11/25 being as per my court directions, the required 14 days prior to my court date of 05/12/25.

I have spent all of my available time over the weekend reading through lots of examples of WS and observed the what I believe are the latest recommendations, by @Char27 or @Feyla, and I must admit I've written mine out numerous times and have ended up going around in circles.

I believe the recent advice is to state the events as I see them and chronologically as the happened and not to pad the statement out with legal arguments as is done in the defence.

If I'm correct in my case it is difficult to state much other than what is in my defence as I am relying on not being the driver and not trying to make a case about signs or other things that may be relevant had I been the driver at the time.

I can make additional points about the signs as I think the usual issue of small text is relevant and the terms and conditions I believe are ambiguous for my circumstances, I can also make some good points about security being present in a hut at the entrance to the site which is controlled by a security barrier which can lead to a driver thinking they have been given authorisation to park as they have been let into the premises (my PCN is for no authorisation to park). However, as I was not the driver neither of those arguments seem relevant as I'm not arguing those things affected me. I can also make some points about the supposed 'white list' which gives authorisation to park, such as having no evidence proving my car wasn't on the list, the fact that my mechanic is responsible for updating that and not me and it being unreasonable for him to do so too. I can also say that no evidence has been provided as to who was driving (not shown in photos), there is no evidence of the car being parked, the period spans 3 days and as far as I'm concerned it would have been on the ramp in my mechanic's unit all of that time.

I'm sorry if I'm missing the obvious but I'm really unsure of which arguments I should make when my defence relies on me not knowing what occurred as I wasn't there.

Coupon-mad

Coupon-mad said:

They'll discontinue this coming week. 

I still say the above.

Can't wait to see a screenshot of the NoD this week so we can add it to the disco thread.