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#Post#: 92905--------------------------------------------------
Re: DCBL - G24 Ltd - 2019! homebase carpark BN3 7EX
DIR By: Paulfamhughes
Date: October 5, 2025, 8:36 am
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Perfect thank you for your help, do I put anything of the body
of the email? or just Claim No: ***** in the subject?
#Post#: 92966--------------------------------------------------
Re: DCBL - G24 Ltd - 2019! homebase carpark BN3 7EX
DIR By: b789
Date: October 6, 2025, 4:13 am
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AS long as the claim number is in the subject field, that is
that really matters. Do I really have to suggest something you
can put in the body of the email?
#Post#: 92989--------------------------------------------------
Re: DCBL - G24 Ltd - 2019! homebase carpark BN3 7EX
DIR By: Paulfamhughes
Date: October 6, 2025, 5:07 am
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🤣No I am just making sure I haven't missed anything.
Thank you.
#Post#: 99973--------------------------------------------------
Re: DCBL - G24 Ltd - 2019! homebase carpark BN3 7EX
DIR By: Paulfamhughes
Date: November 26, 2025, 3:44 pm
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Hello,
I now have meditation call this week, I have uploaded the file
they sent me, stage 2 it mentions about explaining my defence?
Is this new? what am I expected to say on this bit? Thank you.
#Post#: 100056--------------------------------------------------
Re: DCBL - G24 Ltd - 2019! homebase carpark BN3 7EX
DIR By: b789
Date: November 27, 2025, 8:35 am
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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:[/I]
[indent][I]• 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.[/indent]
Please relay that back to me before we continue.”
After the mediator calls back...
If identified and authority confirmed:
[indent]“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.”[/indent]
If no/unclear authority:
[indent]“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.”[/indent]
If the mediator probes your defence:
[indent]”[I]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[/I].”
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.
#Post#: 100177--------------------------------------------------
Re: DCBL - G24 Ltd - 2019! homebase carpark BN3 7EX
DIR By: Paulfamhughes
Date: November 28, 2025, 5:00 am
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Morning,
I have had the mediation call today.
At the start, I asked several questions before setting out my
position, however the mediator stated they were not obliged to
provide this information. I then stated: “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.” The mediator responded by asking if I
was rejecting mediation.
They later returned to say my £0 offer had been rejected and the
claimant had countered with £300. I rejected this and confirmed
my position remained £0. I was then told the mediation had
concluded. The mediator was notably rude, attempted to cut the
call short, and the overall conduct felt very unprofessional.
Additionally, when completing the N180, I provided contact
details for someone to attend the mediation on my behalf. This
was not used, and I was told they did not have that information.
I have since checked our submitted N180 and can confirm the
correct details were included.
Is this how it normally goes?
#Post#: 100199--------------------------------------------------
Re: DCBL - G24 Ltd - 2019! homebase carpark BN3 7EX
DIR By: b789
Date: November 28, 2025, 6:51 am
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The mediation cal is a waste of everyone's time and is not
suitable for these types of cases. However, the powers that be
have decided that what used to be a voluntary thing is now
mandatory. There is no requirement to engage with he mediation.
The only mandatory requirement to "attend" the call.
In a small claims telephone mediation, what you experienced is,
unfortunately, very typical, even if it felt poor in quality.
The mediator is not a judge, not the claimant’s representative,
and not there to explain the law or the claim to you. Their role
is limited to checking that both sides are willing to negotiate,
carrying offers back and forth, and seeing if a figure can be
agreed. Because of that, when you asked questions at the start,
it is standard for them to say things like “I can’t advise” or
“I’m not obliged to provide that information”. It is unhelpful
but common.
You were fully entitled to say that liability is denied and that
your offer is £0. That is still a genuine offer. The mediator
should treat that as participation in mediation, which in fact
they did by taking your £0 position to the other side and
returning with the claimant’s counter-offer of £300. What you
said, along the lines of “liability is denied and my offer is
£0, subject to prompt approval by an authorised solicitor if
they choose to discontinue”, is a sensible formulation and does
not amount to a refusal to mediate. Some mediators work from a
script and, when they hear “I deny liability and I am not paying
anything”, they mentally tick a box that there is no basis to
negotiate and start to question whether mediation is “suitable”.
That is lazy, but it happens. The important point from the
court’s perspective is that you attended, you listened, you
clearly stated your position, and you made an offer, even if
that offer was £0. The fact that no money changed hands does not
mean you refused mediation.
For your own records (not for the court, because mediation is
without prejudice), you can simply note that you attended the
mediation, confirmed that you denied liability, offered £0, the
claimant wanted £300, and no agreement was possible. That is a
perfectly acceptable outcome. In parking and other
bulk-litigation claims it is entirely standard for the claimant
to start at or near the full claim value and hope that you will
fold, and rejecting that and holding your ground at £0 when you
deny liability is a reasonable stance. The mediator’s job is
just to pass that back, and if neither side moves in a way that
creates overlap, the session ends. A mediation that ends with
“£0 versus £300, no settlement” is normal.
The mediator’s rudeness and apparent eagerness to cut the call
short, while unpleasant, is also not unusual. Some mediators are
courteous and patient; others are brisk to the point of being
rude. They are working to strict time slots and sometimes treat
the process like a production line. That does not excuse the
behaviour, but it explains the rushed tone. You can complain to
HMCTS about the service and the mediator’s manner if you wish.
Any complaint would be about the quality of the service, not the
outcome, and it will not affect the progress of the claim. It is
mainly a matter of principle and feedback.
The one aspect that is genuinely not how the system is supposed
to work is the handling of your N180. The form specifically
allows you to nominate someone to attend mediation on your
behalf and to provide their contact details. If those details
were on the N180 filed with the court, the Small Claims
Mediation Service should have had them available and either
contacted that person or at least noted their details. Being
told during the call that they did not have that information
strongly suggests either an administrative error or that the
mediator did not bother to check the file properly. This does
not invalidate the mediation, but it is a legitimate ground for
complaint and something you can later record in your witness
statement. You can say that you properly completed the N180 with
a representative’s details, that those details were not used,
and that the mediator told you they did not have them, despite
them being clearly set out on the Directions Questionnaire. That
shows you tried to engage with ADR correctly and that any
failure lay on the system side, not yours.
Procedurally, mediation has simply failed and the case will now
move on. The claim will be or will already have been transferred
to your local court. In due course you will receive a Notice of
Allocation with a hearing date, directions, and deadlines for
filing witness statements and evidence. Substantively, nothing
you said in mediation can be used against you on the merits of
the case, because mediation is on a without prejudice basis. You
have not admitted liability, you have not made any monetary
offer, and the claimant still has to prove their case in front
of a judge in the usual way.
There is no reason to be worried about how this reflects on you.
On the facts you have described, your conduct was reasonable,
clear, and entirely consistent with denying liability. The
problems you encountered, such as the mediator’s tone, the
refusal to answer questions, and the apparent ignoring of your
nominated representative, are service issues, not legal problems
and not matters that put you at any disadvantage in front of the
court.
You can email the following as a formal complaint to the SCMS at
scmreferrals[member=6517]justice[/member].gov.uk:
--- Quote ---
> Re: Formal complaint about mediation conduct
>
> Dear Small Claims Mediation Service,
>
> Claim number: [claim number]
> Parties: [Claimant] v [Defendant]
> Mediation date: [date of mediation]
> Mediator: [name if known]
>
> I am writing to raise a formal complaint about the conduct of
the telephone mediation in the above-referenced claim. I do not
seek to challenge the outcome of the mediation itself. My
concerns relate to (1) the mediator’s manner and perceived
rudeness, and (2) the failure to act on information I had
already provided on the N180 Directions Questionnaire.
>
> First, at the start of the call I attempted to ask some basic
questions about the process and about whether the claimant’s
representative had authority to settle. The mediator refused to
answer, stating in substance that they were not obliged to
provide this information. When I then stated words to the effect
of: “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,” the mediator immediately asked whether I was
rejecting mediation.
>
> I had clearly indicated that I was willing to participate and
had put forward an offer, albeit of £0, reflecting my denial of
liability. Despite this, the mediator’s tone throughout was
brusque and dismissive. I was frequently interrupted, there was
little attempt to acknowledge or clarify my position, and the
overall impression was that the mediator was keen to curtail the
call rather than facilitate a constructive discussion. I found
this demeanour unprofessional and not in keeping with the
neutral, facilitative role I would reasonably expect from a
court-provided mediation service.
>
> Secondly, when I completed the N180 Directions Questionnaire I
provided full contact details for a person authorised to attend
mediation on my behalf. During the mediation call I was told
that the mediation service “did not have” any such information.
I have checked my own copy of the N180 and can confirm that the
representative’s details are clearly and correctly recorded. It
therefore appears that either this information was not accessed
at all, or it was not acted upon, and my nominated
representative was never contacted or involved.
>
> For the avoidance of doubt, I did engage with the mediation
process: I attended the arranged telephone appointment,
confirmed that I denied liability, put forward an offer of £0,
considered the claimant’s counter-offer of £300, and maintained
my position. No agreement was reached. Any shortcomings in the
process arose from the mediator’s approach and from the failure
to use the representative details that had already been supplied
to the court.
>
> In light of the above, I respectfully request that you:
>
> 1. Log this as a formal complaint about the service provided
in this mediation.
> 2. Review the mediator’s conduct, including the call
recording, in relation to their manner, interruptions, and
suggestion that my position amounted to a rejection of mediation
despite my clear participation.
> 3. Investigate why the representative details given on my N180
were not available or used, and confirm what steps will be taken
to ensure that such information is properly checked and followed
in future.
> 4. Confirm that, on your records, I am not treated as having
refused mediation or failed to engage with ADR in this matter.
>
> I would be grateful for a written response addressing the
points above.
>
> Yours faithfully,
>
> [Your full name]
> [Your address]
> [Your contact details]
--- End Quote ---
#Post#: 116295--------------------------------------------------
Re: DCBL - G24 Ltd - 2019! homebase carpark BN3 7EX
DIR By: Paulfamhughes
Date: April 18, 2026, 3:00 pm
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Hello,
We have received a court date now I have uploaded it to here
HTML https://photos.app.goo.gl/pgmyCDnMKLF3dnD27
I presume nothing for us to do yet? Just a waiting game?
Thank you.
#Post#: 116308--------------------------------------------------
Re: DCBL - G24 Ltd - 2019! homebase carpark BN3 7EX
DIR By: jfollows
Date: April 18, 2026, 11:34 pm
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Wait until 29 July to see if the court fee is paid. DCB Legal
usually discontinue rather than pay the fee. In the interim,
hang up and block their number when they call you.
#Post#: 126985--------------------------------------------------
Re: DCBL - G24 Ltd - 2019! homebase carpark BN3 7EX
DIR By: Paulfamhughes
Date: August 6, 2026, 12:37 am
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Morning,
They paid the trial fee and I received there witness statement
which you kind find all here
HTML https://photos.app.goo.gl/pgmyCDnMKLF3dnD27
What are the next steps thank you!
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