Thank you for all the advice and guidance provided. It was very helpful given that this is such a stressful experience.
I wanted to uppdate those that helped on my case:
- As suggested by others, TfL did NOT agree to an out of court settlement. So I went ahead with the SJPN
- I called HMCTS to request an extension on the deadline given that I was emailing TfL for a settlement. There is no formal extension policy, HOWEVER, HMCTS did add a note on my account to state that I was in communication with TfL and would respond to the SJPN a few days late. HMCTS assured me that this would not affect the resolution in any way.
- Once I did submitted my plea, I received a response a few days later with the penalty amount. I am assuming that because I am unemployed, the penalty was limited to few hundred pounds.
- I did call HMCTS to ask about the impact on DBS checks, they were unhelpful in this matter. I guess I can do a check on myself to figure it out.
In all, this was a very harrowing process. My advice to others is to take action as soon as possibe and to not ignore the initial letter. I reached out to TfL on
[email protected] for initial correspondence. An officer responded so emailed him directly thereafter. TfL was helpful in that they responded on the same day given that I was on a tight timeline. I called them to have the case expedited.
Hope this is helpful to others. And, again, thank you to all that helped with their insights.
