Free Traffic Legal Advice

Not particularly. The claimant is under the same deadline as you. You can call the court and enquire about it.

Ignore the DCB Legal offer. Have you tried calling the court to see where the case is at regarding the letters you sent?

There are so many procedural irregularities with this case, it needs dealing with urgently.

It won't matter if you submit your WS a bit late. What you want to see is if the claimant submits theirs by the deadline and you also want a response from the court about the procedural irregularities.

Normally, if DCB Legal have begun to make 'without prejudice' reduced offers of settlement, it is just a precursor to their discontinuance.

Good morning,

I have called this morning and spoken with the National Contact Centre for Civil & Family Court -- as it is the only contact number within Uxbridge County Courts GOV.UK webpage.

I raised that I have not received a response to my email. I accepted that it has not yet been 10 working days, as per the auto-response I received to my email. I was then informed that the 5-10 working days stated is just what is within the auto-response and is “generic”; the timeline for a response is, in fact, up to 19 weeks.

She advised that I can submit an N244 form to which I stated that I have already requested within my letter that the matter of vacating the hearing be handled using the Court’s case management powers (and quoted CPR 3.1(2)(b)). I got nothing in response to this; instead, I was advised to resend the email but include the word urgent in capital letters within the email’s subject line.

I mentioned that I had raised serious concerns which put me at a disadvantage within the hearing and quoted EX50 - Civil and Family Court Fees guidance and the accompanying EX306 leaflet. Again, I got nothing whatsoever.

So, according to the agent at the National Contact Centre for Civil & Family Court, I may not receive a response to the concerns and my request to vacate until after the hearing date has passed. I stated this, however, she reiterated her advice is to send the email again but put URGENT in the subject and if I don’t receive a response then to call back 24 hours before the hearing date and they can call the Court, however, they cannot do anything until then (even though I’m not available the day before - as I mentioned).

If I have to pay £123 for rescheduling the hearing then I’d be better off paying the £100 settlement offer from DCB Legal which I have absolutely do not want to do.

Re-send your original letter by email as instructed—but do so with forceful clarity in the subject line:

URGENT – Request to Vacate Hearing on 25/06/2025 – Claim No. [insert] – Time-Sensitive Unavailability & Procedural Concerns

Attach your original letter again, but also add a brief cover message in the body of the email like this:

Dear Court Officer,

I write to re-submit the attached letter, originally sent on [insert original date], requesting that the hearing on 25 June 2025 be vacated due to the Defendant’s unavoidable overseas travel.

I respectfully remind the Court that this matter has been raised under CPR 3.1(2)(b) as a request to be dealt with administratively and that the Defendant does not seek a formal N244 application, given the disproportionate cost relative to the claim value (£329).

The attached letter also raises serious procedural fairness concerns regarding the hearing fee deadline, and the Defendant’s unavailability has been explained in full.

I have been informed by the National Contact Centre that I may not receive a response before the hearing date, which would clearly place the Defendant at a significant disadvantage.

Please confirm urgent receipt and whether the Court will act on this administrative request.

Yours faithfully,

[Your name]
[Your email / phone]

CC DCB Legal and yourself again as before.

Hello,

I have received an email from DCB regarding the claim, writing:

“Dear XXXXXXXXXX,
 
We act for the Claimant in the above matter. 
 
Our client has instructed us to discontinue Court proceedings and close our file. Therefore, please find enclosed the Claimant’s N279 Notice of Discontinuance for your records. 
 
The attached has also been filed with the Court.
 
We will now proceed to close our file accordingly.”

This began as a stressful experience for me but through the guidance on this thread, it has been a fairly simple process to fight back against these scammers. Thank you so much for all of your help, I am truly grateful.