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#Post#: 99791--------------------------------------------------
Re: ECP / DCB Court Claim - Advice Appreciated
DIR By: DWMB2
Date: November 25, 2025, 1:57 pm
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If they attempt to call you, ignore them and block their number.
The 2nd page of that notice should specify a date by which
witness statements must be submitted (if not discontinued by
then). Does it and if so what is the date for that?
#Post#: 99824--------------------------------------------------
Re: ECP / DCB Court Claim - Advice Appreciated
DIR By: b789
Date: November 26, 2025, 1:43 am
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No idea wh you redacted the 4pm and 10am times on that notice.
They are public domain and have no significance to any privacy
issues.
The crucial date is the £27 trial fee deadline, as it is just
before this date that they will issue the N279 Notice of
Discontinuance. Please show that to us when it arrives and leave
the signature and their position unredacted.
#Post#: 100409--------------------------------------------------
Re: ECP / DCB Court Claim - Advice Appreciated
DIR By: dave-o
Date: November 30, 2025, 11:03 am
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--- Quote from: DWMB2 link ---
>
>
> The 2nd page of that notice should specify a date by which
witness statements must be submitted (if not discontinued by
then). Does it and if so what is the date for that?
>
--- End Quote ---
4pm on the 19th of December. Is there more i should submit then?
#Post#: 100418--------------------------------------------------
Re: ECP / DCB Court Claim - Advice Appreciated
DIR By: Sel1700
Date: November 30, 2025, 12:43 pm
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just to be clear you entered your defence via email to the
court. I don't think when doing it this way you see anything on
your mcol account. but I might be wrong.
#Post#: 100453--------------------------------------------------
Re: ECP / DCB Court Claim - Advice Appreciated
DIR By: b789
Date: December 1, 2025, 2:52 am
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--- Quote from: Sel1700 link ---
>
> just to be clear you entered your defence via email to the
court. I don't think when doing it this way you see anything on
your mcol account. but I might be wrong.
>
--- End Quote ---
The MCOL history will be updated to show the date the defence
was received and submitted, whether sent snail mail, email or
directly through MCOL.
MCOL will update to show any action until the claim is
transferred to the defendants local county court. After that, it
plays no part in the process.
#Post#: 100462--------------------------------------------------
Re: ECP / DCB Court Claim - Advice Appreciated
DIR By: AndyT008
Date: December 1, 2025, 4:05 am
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Hello
Hello helpful people - an observation, and a couple of
questions, about the timeline to the trial date for this case.
OBSERVATION
The trial date is 25 February 2026.
The trial fee payment deadline is 28 January 2026.
The deadline for the Witness Statements is given as 4pm on 19
December 2025.
QUESTION
Is it normal to have the WS date so early? - six weeks before
the trial fee deadline.
Do you think the claimant will file their WS that early? - or
will they deliberately miss the date so they have the
defendant's WS first.
I would appreciate your view on those questions - thanks.
#Post#: 100506--------------------------------------------------
Re: ECP / DCB Court Claim - Advice Appreciated
DIR By: b789
Date: December 1, 2025, 7:34 am
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You’re not imagining it – those dates are unhelpful and
front-load all the work onto you, while DCB Legal still haven’t
even committed to paying the trial fee.
1. What the court has effectively said
– The PoC say no more than “vehicle parked without a valid pay
by phone transaction” plus the usual boilerplate.
– Your defence is: these PoC are still too bare to meet CPR 16.4
and you invited strike-out.
– The procedural judge has chosen not to strike the claim or
your defence. So the 16.4 point is preserved, but it’s now for
the trial judge to decide, not a done deal.
Separately, the court has ordered witness statements by 19
December 2025. That is a binding direction on both sides unless
it is varied.
2. The defence is all about CPR 16.4
A defence is a pleading. It explains why, at the pleadings
stage, you could not properly answer a vague claim.
A witness statement is evidence. You are allowed to say:
– At the time I filed my defence, the PoC were too bare for me
to plead fully.
– I maintain that they still fail CPR 16.4 and that the claim
should be struck out.
– However, in compliance with the court’s later order to file a
witness statement, I set out below the limited facts I can give,
without waiving my criticisms of the PoC.
That lets you give the four key facts:
– Site is an abandoned industrial estate, businesses closed.
– Terms require the driver to be a “customer” of a non-existent
business, so compliance is impossible.
– There is a gate that is always left open, so this is obviously
a trap, not genuine control.
– The vehicle was only on site for 11 minutes.
You can then argue, in the alternative, that even if the judge
finds the PoC just about adequate, on those facts there is
either no contract, or no breach, or the charge is plainly an
unfair penalty. That does not contradict the defence. It shows
you did not have enough pleaded information then, but you are
now complying with the court’s later order and giving the judge
what little factual background you can.
3. Your specific dilemma: file on 19 December if ECP/DCB have
done nothing?
Yes. Even if they have not served any WS by that date, You
should still serve a short, tightly-focused WS on the deadline.
Waiting to see if they pay the trial fee or serve a WS is too
risky, for three reasons:
a) You would be in clear breach of a court order.
If ECP pay the fee and eventually serve a WS, they can point to
your non-compliance. You could be looking at needing relief from
sanctions just to rely on your own evidence. That is wholly
avoidable.
b) Judges are often more forgiving of late claimant evidence
than of a LiP who ignored directions.
You do not want to hand ECP/DCB an easy procedural point while
relying on the court’s indulgence for yourself.
c) If you serve nothing, and they serve something (even late),
the judge has only their factual account.
Your 16.4 argument may or may not land. If it doesn’t, you will
have zero evidence on the merits to oppose their narrative.
4. The “judge might say you knew enough”
That risk exists whether or not you file a WS. The judge can
already see from:
– The PoC: “no valid pay by phone transaction”; and
– The fact you’ve defended at all,
that you have some idea what incident this is about.
Your best protection is not to refuse to give evidence. It is to
make the structure of your WS absolutely clear:
– Primary: the PoC never gave you the basic particulars that CPR
16.4 requires (time, date, signage relied on, contractual terms,
how the sum is calculated, whether they sue you as driver or
keeper, etc). Re-explain that, with the PoC exhibited.
– Prejudice: explain that as a LiP you were put in an impossible
position at the pleadings stage, forced to defend in the dark,
and that the court should not reward ECP for using vague,
generic PoC.
– Alternative: only then, “for the avoidance of doubt”, set out
the four factual points you know and why, even on those limited
facts, there is no enforceable claim.
If the judge decides “this claim just about passes CPR 16.4”,
you have at least given yourself a merits defence. If you serve
nothing, you lose both procedurally and on the facts.
5. How to use ECP/DCB behaviour and the timetable
You are absolutely right that the timetable is lopsided: you
must do the WS work before ECP have paid the fee, in a claim
type where ECP/DCB Legal notoriously discontinue very late. So
say so, in clear terms in the WS:
– You are a LiP in a low-value parking claim.
– You have been forced to prepare a WS months before trial and
before the claimant has even shown they intend to proceed by
paying the trial fee.
– In this ECP/DCB Legal model of bulk litigation, almost all
claims are discontinued late if defended, so this is
disproportionate and abusive.
– Invite the court to take that conduct into account, especially
if they do discontinue late.
That way, if they do drag you through all this and then drop it,
you have at least laid the groundwork to argue unreasonable
conduct and seek your costs.
6. Bottom line
Given that:
– The court has not struck the claim out.
– There is a clear order requiring WS by 19 December 2025.
– ECP/DCB Legal may or may not pay the fee.
The safest and most sensible course is:
– On 19 December, serve a short, focused WS even if ECP/DCB
Legal have served nothing.
– Make it primarily about CPR 16.4 non-compliance and prejudice,
with your four key factual points clearly framed as an
alternative.
– Keep full proof of service.
Only if the court itself vacates the directions or strikes out
the claim before that date would it be sensible not to bother.
Anything else (waiting to see if they pay, waiting for their WS
first) hands control back to ECP/DCB Legal and exposes you to
avoidable procedural risk.
So, if you have not received their WS a few days before the
deadline, remind me here and I can put something together that
you can use as your WS, unless you fancy preparing it yourself
and showing us before submitting it at the deadline.
#Post#: 100514--------------------------------------------------
Re: ECP / DCB Court Claim - Advice Appreciated
DIR By: AndyT008
Date: December 1, 2025, 8:05 am
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b789 - wow! - thank you for your reply to my questions - that is
very helpful.
#Post#: 100733--------------------------------------------------
Re: ECP / DCB Court Claim - Advice Appreciated
DIR By: dave-o
Date: December 2, 2025, 11:00 am
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Thank you all. Just for the avoidance of all doubt, do I need
to enter anything else by the 19th, or the particulars (as
provided here) I have already submitted will be enough?
Presumably they will fold regardless of any extra submissions,
but just to check it's not a formality or something.
#Post#: 100737--------------------------------------------------
Re: ECP / DCB Court Claim - Advice Appreciated
DIR By: b789
Date: December 2, 2025, 11:06 am
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If you've not received a copy of their Witness Statement by 18th
December, remind me here to prepare a suitable WS for you to
submit on the 19th.
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