Free Traffic Legal Advice

HOW TO GET HELP in this section of the forum
Please follow these instructions to avoid delay in response.
Please also read the house rules.
Please post from a computer, you should not try and deal with potentially complex legal matters while fumbling around with a phone screen.

IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED A CHARGE CERTIFICATE DO NOT WRITE TO THE COUNCIL! SEEK ADVICE FROM US  FIRST. IF YOU WRITE TO THE COUNCIL IN RESPONSE TO A CHARGE CERTIFICATE YOU ARE PROBABLY GOING TO SHOOT YOURSELF IN THE FOOT.

IMPORTANT: Those giving advice on here do so in their own time as volunteers, we have no paid staff. Every PCN we look at requires a lot of investigation, as we have to look into all manner of background matters you wouldn't know about (like traffic orders, compliance of documents etc) and that can take hours. This means it could take 7 to 10 days for you to get a comprehensive response from a senior expert, so please be patient. Do not pay the penalty simply because you haven't had a prompt response, this does not mean you do not have a case, it just means your case has not been looked at yet, but it will be. If you want me to specifically look at a post please tag me by adding @cp8759 into the post.

1.TOPIC TITLE. give the details of the penalty charge notice (PCN) – include:
Council name or other authority
The alleged contravention (summarise - no need to quote in full)
Location
Examples: Islington, code 01 parked in a restricted street, White Lion Street / TFL, yellow box, Homerton Fire Station

If your case is at bailiff stage, add 'bailiff' to the title. We need to focus on this first.

2. Outline your case/tell your story/explain the problem and how we might help.

3. Post the PCN and all subsequent notices or correspondence. The easiest way is to take pictures with your phone. There is no upload space on this site so you will have to upload to a picture hosting site (such as https://imgur.com or similar) and post links

You can use the "add image" icon to embed images in your post:



However if you are using imgur (our preferred option), once you've uploaded an image to the site you can use the share link option to copy the BB codes:





You can then paste that into your post and the image will be embedded into the post, just as all the images in this post have been. If copying the BB link from imgur you must not use the "add image" button, you just paste the link directly into your post.

Alternatively use Google Drive/Dropbox etc. and post links.
You can also upload videos to YouTube, Vimeo etc. and to Google Drive etc (please avoid using https://wetransfer.com/ as most members won't bother downloading zip files, you need to use a website that allows files to be viewed in a browser).

Leave in the PCN number and vehicle numberplate (VRM). The ONLY things you should obscure are your name and address where they appear, NOTHING ELSE. We may need ALL sides of ALL pages but it is OK to start a case with just the front of the PCN.

You can of course post council pics and videos too but don’t struggle – ask for help.

For location we like to see a Street View link in Google Maps, for example:
https://goo.gl/maps/QWuBAc6KpzTRfnq47

To share a Google Street View location, click the three dots in the upper-left hand corner and then "Share or embed image":



You will then get a short URL you can copy / paste into the forum:



To ensure you are alerted to replies on your thread, you must tick the "Notify me of replies" box under "Attachments and other options":



Also make sure to add noreply@ftla.uk to your email contacts / safe senders list, the last thing you want is for an alert from the forum to end up in your spam folder.

Finally to create a new post you need to use the "new topic" button:



Lastly this spreadsheet https://bit.ly/2ALghSS includes a database of known flaws for each PCN-issuing authority in the country, plus key legislation, case law and so on, it's not essential reading but is a useful reference library.