Free Traffic Legal Advice

For the mediation call, the only requirement is for you "attend" the call. It is not part of the judicial process and no judge is involved.

This is what I advise you to say when you receive the call from the mediator:

“Before I set out my position, please confirm from the claimant’s side:

• the full name of the person attending for them;
• their role/position at their legal representative’s firm; and
• whether they hold written authority to negotiate and settle today.

Please relay that back to me before we continue.”

After the mediator calls back...

If identified and authority confirmed:

“Thank you. I’m content to proceed on that basis. My settlement offer is £0, or I invite the claimant to discontinue with no order as to costs.”

If no/unclear authority:

“Please record that the claimant’s attendee has not confirmed settlement authority. My position remains that liability is denied and my offer is £0, subject to prompt approval by an authorised solicitor if they choose to discontinue.”

If the mediator probes your defence:

”In what capacity are you asking that question? Are you legally trained?  If not, please refrain from offering opinions. I will be reporting any attempt to do so as inappropriate.”

All you need to know is the name and the position of the person acting for the claimant and report that back to us. It will be over within minutes. Complete waste of time otherwise.

I had the mediation call this morning and followed these steps.

I was informed that the total amount of the claim is £255 which relates to this parking charge issued of 5th June 2024. Maximum parking time 24hours. This vehicle entered the site at 1931hours on 4th June and left the site on 5th June, observed for 1 day 36minutes which is over the 24hours maximum period. It was also noted that no appeal had been submitted from the original parking charge or transfer of liability.

I outlined the above prepared statement to the mediator requesting the full name of the person attending etc. Mediator asked for my defence and said this information wouldn't change anything today. I replied that before we continue I require this information.

Received a call back and was told BW Legal are not prepared to provide that information so I informed them of this "Please record that the claimant’s attendee has not confirmed settlement authority. My position remains that liability is denied and my offer is £0, subject to prompt approval by an authorised solicitor if they choose to discontinue."

I was informed my response has been logged and the case will be updated as unresolved and passed to the courts. I should await a response from the courts in due course about what happens next.

Will keep you updated and as always, thanks for your continued help and support.

You should expect to receive a court date, including dates by which the claimant has to pay the court fee and dates by which Witness Statements need to be submitted to the court.
If you post here when you do, you will get appropriate advice.

Hello guys, just joined this forum as I have also received a letter of claim from BW Legal. Last year i overstayed parking by 1hr. This is completely my fault, and got a fine of 60GBP. However, as i was abroad at the time of the fine issuance, i was not aware of it. As a result, when I opened the letter from the post, the penalty had risen to 100GBP. I disputed this and it was still denied. BW Legal has now sent a letter of claim threatening CC action. Do i pay the fine or try to dispute based on the below email example (" insufficient detail of the claim and fails to provide copies of evidence your client places reliance upon and thus is in complete contravention of the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims...")?

I am in England, and the "driver" has not been named.

Thanks

Please respect the rules and start your own thread.

You should expect to receive a court date, including dates by which the claimant has to pay the court fee and dates by which Witness Statements need to be submitted to the court.
If you post here when you do, you will get appropriate advice.

Before I submit to represent on behalf of my wife, is there anything I should know before submitting an Form N434 to say we are not being legally represented? I understand a copy of this will be sent to the claimaint's solicitors. Not sure if this will put us at a disadvantage if they know we will be representing ourselves?

Also, I still haven't heard anything from the court.

No.

The point of this forum, and all of its cases, are about self-defence.

Caveat: I have no experience of the use of the N434 form. It’s not unknown for courts to give bad advice.

I received an email from BW Legal in response to form N434 asking to confirm if I have legal representation so they can update their file accordingly, which I haven't responded to.

A letter was also received in the post today 29/05/2026 essentially willing to resolve the matter outside of court as part of "goodwill" for £100. Offer expires 18th June which I will not accept.

Attached is the letter below;

The claimant pays the fee, not the defendant, so BW Legal need to pay or discontinue before 4pm on 30 July. If the fee is paid, you and BW Legal need to send the court and each other a Witness Statement by 7 August, two weeks in advance of the court hearing.

Unless you want to scramble at the last minute, you should draft your witness statement now, at least in outline form so you know what you’re going to write. It needs to be a chronological statement of the facts in the witness’s own words, which is presumably your wife’s statement and not yours. As @DWMB2 posts frequently, it’s better to assume the case is going ahead and be prepared for it, in the worst case you will have spent a little time and effort which comes to nothing but you’ll learn something from it. You may additionally be able to rebut anything in their WS at the last moment, but their WS won’t substantially alter your wife’s.

You ned to research what a Witness Statement is, it’s not a copy or rehash of a template/boilerplate defence which only moans about the process. Especially since it’s the basis on which you could be questioned in court, so you need to understand it.