Nothing to worry about. Typical of a claimant that is now panicking and realises they have nowhere to run.
Your case is very strong.Their letter is marked "Without Prejudice Save as to Costs". This protects the contents from being shown to the judge when determining liability, unless and until the court is considering the question of costs after the outcome has been decided.
Therefore, the letter cannot lawfully be used to influence the judge's decision on whether to set aside judgment or strike out the claim.
They can try to show it at the end, only if the judge reaches a point of deciding who should bear costs — but this cuts both ways. You can point to your earlier offer and their refusal to engage before the application was filed, which makes their conduct worse.
A draft consent order is not binding unless both parties sign it and it is approved by the court. If they try to submit the draft order alone, implying agreement when you haven’t consented, that would be misleading the court — potentially amounting to abuse of process or even professional misconduct if done deliberately.
CEL’s claim in their “without prejudice save as to costs” letter — that they “
would have made a similar offer had you contacted us prior to lodging your application” — is plainly false. You not only contacted them in advance, but you also provided detailed legal reasoning, gave them a clear and fair deadline, offered a cooperative solution (joint application) and deferred unilateral action to allow them time to respond.
This amounts to a reasonable and constructive pre-action offer in line with both CPR 1.1 (overriding objective) and CPR 44.2 (costs discretion).
I suggest you send a Supplemental Witness Statement (SWS)ogether with two additional exhibits, your original letter to CEL offering an uncontested set aside and their electronic receipt of that letter having been sent. Additionally, you can send CEL an SAR requiring them to provide copies of every piece of data that they hold on you. It will be interesting to see if they include anything that references that electronic receipt.
You should send the SWS
IN THE COUNTY COURT AT CROYDON
Claim No: H3GM808Q
BETWEEN:
Civil Enforcement Ltd
Claimant
- and -
[Defendant's Full Name]
Defendant
SUPPLEMENTAL WITNESS STATEMENT
I, [Defendant’s Full Name], of [full address], make this supplemental statement in support of my application to set aside the default judgment entered on 15th June 2021 and to strike out the claim.
I make this statement in response to recent correspondence received from the Claimant, and to clarify the position regarding my efforts to resolve this matter prior to issuing my application.
Clarification Regarding Pre-Application Conduct
1. I have received a letter from the Claimant marked “Without Prejudice Save as to Costs”. I do not intend to rely upon the contents of that letter at this stage and understand that such correspondence is inadmissible until and unless the Court considers the issue of costs. However, I consider it necessary to clarify the factual record regarding my own pre-application conduct.
2. On 2nd November 2024, I submitted a detailed and reasoned letter to the Claimant via their online contact portal. In that letter, I proposed a joint application to set aside the default judgment and dismiss the claim, suggesting that the Claimant bear the application fee and that there be no order as to costs. A copy of that letter is attached as Exhibit XX-09.
3. I invited a response by 4 pm on 13th November 2024 and stated clearly that I would defer submitting a unilateral application until that deadline had passed. Despite this, the Claimant did not reply or acknowledge my proposal. I therefore proceeded to issue the application unilaterally, at my own expense.
4. I also attach as Exhibit XX-10 a copy of the automated receipt generated by the Claimant’s system confirming receipt of my correspondence on 2nd November 2024, under reference CELC_20241102_MB_933. The receipt stated that I would receive an acknowledgement and a substantive response within 28 days. I did not receive either.
5. I provide this information solely to assist the Court in understanding the full background to the application and to demonstrate that I took all reasonable steps to resolve the matter cooperatively prior to engaging the Court. I reserve the right to refer to any further correspondence if and when the Court considers the issue of costs.
Relevance to Application
6. The Claimant’s failure to respond to my open and constructive approach resulted in unnecessary proceedings and expense. This is particularly significant given that I made clear the procedural errors in the Claimant’s service of the claim and the prejudice I had suffered as a result.
7. I respectfully submit that my conduct was entirely reasonable and consistent with the overriding objective. The Claimant’s failure to engage with my open offer and their subsequent conduct support the view that their behaviour has been unreasonable.
Statement of truth
I believe that the facts stated in this Supplemental Witness Statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.
Signed:
Date:
IN THE COUNTY COURT AT CROYDON
Claim No: H3GM808Q
BETWEEN:
Civil Enforcement Ltd
Claimant
- and -
[Defendant's Full Name]
Defendant
INDEX OF DOCUMENTS
1. Supplemental Witness Statement of [Your Full Name]
2. List of Additional Exhibits:
Exhibit XX-09: Letter from Defendant to Claimant dated 2nd November 2024
[Insert your full letter beginning “URGENT – Dear Sirs...”]
Exhibit XX-10: Submission Receipt
[Insert the screenshot receipt or the wording from it here: “Thank you for contacting us. Your reference number is CELC_20241102_MB_933 for all correspondence. Please note we will respond to your complaint within 28 days. You will also receive an email acknowledgement with this reference on. If you do not receive one shortly, please check your email junk folder and/or ensure you supplied the correct email address.”
— Civil Enforcement Ltd online contact form, 2nd November 2024]
Each exhibit should have its own header as per all these pages and the title "Exhibit XX-NN". For example:
IN THE COUNTY COURT AT CROYDON
Claim No: H3GM808Q
BETWEEN:
Civil Enforcement Ltd
Claimant
- and -
[Defendant's Full Name]
Defendant
EXHIBIT XX-09
Letter from Defendant to Claimant (2nd November 2024)
This letter was submitted as a PDF attachment on the Claimants website: https://www.ce-service.co.uk/submit-a-complaint/
URGENT
Dear Sirs,
CIVIL ENFORCEMENT LIMITED (THE ‘CLAIMANT’) V [your full name] CLAIM REFERENCE H3GM80Q8
On 24th October 2024, I received the attached letter dated 13th October 2024 from yourselves. This came as a tremendous shock as it is the first and only communication I have received from your company or any organisation representing you in relation to this claim.
I made immediate enquiries of the CNBC from which I was able to establish that:
1. the claim relates to an alleged parking event in March 2019;
2. the claim form was sent to an old address at which I no longer reside; and
3. if I had been given the opportunity to do so, I would have successfully defended the claim.
I did not receive any pre-claim correspondence, not even a letter of claim as required by the PAP. Nor did I receive the claim form or any particulars of claim and was thus deprived of the ability to defend the claim. Your company is well aware that people move home from time to time. You also know that I did not respond to any communications sent to me at my old address.
This situation is explicitly dealt with in the Civil Procedure Rules which provide at CPR 6.9(3):
(3) Where a claimant has reason to believe that the address of the defendant ... is an address at which the defendant no longer resides or carries on business, the claimant must take reasonable steps to ascertain the address of the defendant’s current residence or place of business (‘current address’).
As your company is a member of the British Parking Association (the ‘BPA’) and is bound by the BPA’s Code of Practice which gives voice to CPR 6.9(3) in the following terms:
24.1c Before serving a Letter Before Claim and prior to the issue of proceedings, Operators must, if no responses have been received to the NtD/NtK/reminder letters, take reasonable endeavours to ensure that the contact details for the person you are writing to are correct.
If your company had taken the actions required by the Civil Procedure Rules and the Code of Practice, my current address would have been found easily, which is obviously what you did before sending your letter dated 13th October 2024. If those actions had been performed at the correct time rather than after judgment, I would not have been deprived of the ability to defend the claim.
By reason of Civil Enforcement's breach of the Civil Procedure Rules, which amounts to an abuse of the process of the Court, the claim form was never properly served and the judgment must be set aside at your expense and the claim dismissed because it is now too late for the particulars of claim to be re-served.
In view of the foregoing, I invite Civil Enforcement Ltd to join with me in an application to set aside the judgment and dismiss the claim, with Civil Enforcement Ltd paying the court fee and no order as to costs.
Please respond to the above offer as soon as possible so that, if the offer is acceptable to you, we can work together to right the wrong that Civil Enforcement has done to me.
To give you a reasonable time to take instructions and for us to agree a suite of documents for the Court, I am willing to defer making a unilateral application to set aside the judgment until 4 pm on Wednesday 13th November 2024. If a joint application has not been made by that time, I intend to instruct a solicitor to apply to the Court unilaterally for an order setting the judgment aside, striking out the particulars of claim, dismissing the claim and awarding costs against Civil Enforcement Ltd on a full indemnity basis.
Pease respond by immediate return.
Yours faithfully,
And also the receipt:
IN THE COUNTY COURT AT CROYDON
Claim No: H3GM808Q
BETWEEN:
Civil Enforcement Ltd
Claimant
- and -
[Defendant's Full Name]
Defendant
EXHIBIT XX-10
Submission Receipt from Civil Enforcement Ltd
You send the SWS and extra exhibits as a PDF attachment in a single email addressed to: enquiries.croydon.countycourt@justice.gov.uk and legal@ce-service.co.uk and you also CC in yourself.
Make sure the email subject contains the clam number and in the body write something along these lines:
“Please find enclosed the Defendant’s Supplemental Witness Statement dated [insert date], filed in support of the set-aside application. This statement addresses new developments and provides additional evidence relating to the Claimant’s conduct and the Defendant’s pre-application correspondence.”
You should combine all the pages into a single PDF with each page numbered. When this goes to the hearing, you should prepare a single PDF document with the WS, exhibits, draft order for the set aside, SWS and additional exhibits, each page numbered. Take two hard copies of each with you. I tis not unusual for the claimants rep to feign that they haven't received all the paperwork. You can impress the judge by having available extra copies for both the court and the claimant.
