Free Traffic Legal Advice

You have not received a summons. This is not a criminal matter. You have received a county court claim for an alleged debt, from ECP, issued by DCB Legal.

What is the “issue date” of the claim?

This is very easily defended and I can say with better than 99% certainty that they will eventually discontinue.

You say that you updated your address with the DVLA. Did you update both your drivers licence and the V5C? Updating one does not update the other. Is the N1SDT claim form addressed to you at your current address or has it been handed to you from somewhere else?

If it is addressed to you at your current address, then that is ok. If it isn’t and you did not receive any Pre Action Protocol correspondence such as a formal Letter of Claim (LoC), you will have even more for your eventual defence.

Unfortunately you did not acknowledge or defend the claim and a default CCJ has been issued against you. If you pay it in full within 28 days, it will be expunged from your credit file. If you don't pay it within 28 days of the judgment (13th January), then it will remain on your credit file for 6 years and will cause you untold financial pain.

You had until the 3rd December to Acknowledge Service (AoS) which would have given you until 24th December to submit your defence. By not submitting an AoS, you were in danger of receiving a default CCJ from the 4th December. They didn't push the button until 16th December.

Had you done the AoS and submitted a defence, you would not have had to pay a penny to ECP. The claim would have been discontinued.

Now you are financially out of pocket. You could pay £303 for a set aside with no guarantee it will be accepted by the court and you would still have to defend the claim.