CEL without prejudice offer before court hearing

lawmystress

Hi guys,

I have followed this forum steps religiously and we are near the end now. Thanks so much!!

I have got a court hearing with CEL on 15th of April 2026, but they had till 18th of March 2026 to pay the court fee. I tried to call the court today to see if they paid it, but sadly got fobbed off as the claim is in the keeper's name.

In the meantime, they sent me this beautiful and very generous offer of £160 to settle which expired today and I obviously didn't pay it.

Apart from trying the court again tomorrow, is there anything else I should try and find out? Didn't get any more emails from them. But may be there will be something tomorrow?

Another thing is that it's very unlikely I'd be able to attend the hearing - the keeper is 100% unavailable to come, and I have a small baby and full time work, so I guess I have to follow the protocol here and let the court know if I can't make it after all. Thank you!!

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Car1980

If you can't attend you'd be better making a counteroffer of £100 or so as you'll almost certainly lose if you don't attend, with the very real chance of having to pay their costs. Their petrol claim will be £131 for starters.

You have to balance this with the fact they're very likely not to attend themselves if it's a CEL in-house claim. But they could be reading this themselves and now be thinking it could be worth the trip.

By the way, only the person named on the claim form is required to attend. But what do the particulars of claim say? Things can work differently if the defendant is the keeper but wasn't the driver.

You really need to find out if the fee has been paid before making a decision. Ignore their offer "expiry" for now.

Coupon-mad

They didn't send you anything. You aren't the Defendant and are a stranger to the case unless you and the keeper both put in WS then YOU can attend, with the baby. We had a lady two weeks ago win in court with her almost newborn baby in the court room in his pram. The case took mere minutes.

If the hearing goes ahead, which most do not, the Defendant WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY LOSE IF THEY FAIL TO ATTEND.

Why can't they? It doesn't take long and is an interesting life experience.

Are you the driver?

Have you and the D done a WS yet?

Has the D received CEL's full WS this month signed by Ali whatshisname?

Is this a CEL in-house claim, not using DCB Legal?

Did the D get an early WS signed by Scott Wilson who has now left CEL?

ChirpyChicken

Cel have in a lot of cases recently not paid the hearing fee.

Coupon-mad

Yep I think the wheels have come off a bit since Wongaman left.

lawmystress

Morning,

@Coupon-mad thanks so much for your reply.

I am sorry, I think my initial message wasn't very clear. So I mentioned myself in the claim form as a witness and representative.

I was the driver, yes. I haven't done the WS yet, thought I'll do it once they confirmed they paid the fee.

It looks like it has always been in-house team as I can't find any DCB Legal mentioned anywhere.

So I called the court today with the keeper and court clerk confirmed that he can't see any fee being paid, but the hearing still listed. I emailed the court asking to confirm the fee paid or not, as the clerk said sometimes it's not showing. So that's where we are it!

Fully intending to attend the court with all 'daggers out' if it does come to it thanks to you now!

Coupon-mad

"So I mentioned myself in the claim form as a witness and representative."

Please please don't tell us YOU did the defence in your name? You are not allowed.

Reassure us the defence was done in the Defendant's name on their Government Gateway account…?

lawmystress

@Coupon-mad yes, everything done in defendant's name, and the final hearing also came through in the defendant name.

Driver remained undisclosed throughout the process, I only did the mediation as an appointed person, well just answered the phone call and said my offer is 0 and then he hang up.

So just to clarify - do I wait from the court to answer if hearing is still going ahead or should I make a WS now and submit it regardless? Where can I please check how to appoint me as someone who will attend the hearing, as keeper 100% isn't going.

Gr1pr

Keeper defendant must go, you can attend if the defendant attends , not otherwise ( you would only be a silent viewer if possible if on your own.,and observer only, if the judge allows it , you cannot speak )

You cannot be an advocate acting on behalf of the defendant, no legal standing

The court order tells the defendant to submit a WS plus Exhibits to both parties and gives them a deadline

You cannot submit anything on its own, you are a stranger to the claim

The defendant can phone the court to check if the hearing fee was paid and if the hearing is going ahead ( they may give you the information regardless like they did today )

Car1980

A stranger to the claim, but you can be a witness ie. you can include your own witness statement as long as it's accompanied by the defendant's own witness statement.

You can attend as long as the defendant attends.

Although in theory you could attend without the defendant as a witness if you'd submitted a WS, but would be risky. You wouldn't be an advocate but theoretically the judge could ask some direct questions and use the information to make a judgment as there is no obligation to automatically find for the only attending party. Theoretically a driver who was there would be able to provide much more evidence than a liable keeper who was elsewhere.

But it would be a big lottery and you might not even get past the usher.

Coupon-mad

You can only be a witness if you were there on the day (and we know you aren't the keeper, the D is).

For example you can do a WS and will therefore be allowed to speak at the hearing, if you were driving and admit to it. May as well, if that's true.

If yes, both of you MUST do a WS each.

If no, only the keeper must. It's VITAL.

Read a few recent threads & copy the style.