No response from private TOC after several weeks

[scaredperson]

Hi all,

my partner received "the letter" regarding travel irregularities several weeks back. Having replied through a lawyer admitting to the cases and also disclosing some they had not been mentioning yet.
I am very worried to share details here as I fear the negative impact on the case but it was a case of repeated fare evasion (no ticket, short ticket), but no false or altered railcard or anything more serious.
Now it has been more than 3 weeks with no answer from them. This radio silence makes me worry that one day my partner will just receive a court summons.
To the experts here, is this still within the expected wait times? Would they at least send a formal email declining the offer to settle the matter, which was sent through the lawyer or would the next thing to hear be a court summons?

Thank you all in advance!

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi all,

my partner received "the letter" regarding travel irregularities several weeks back. Having replied through a lawyer admitting to the cases and also disclosing some they had not been mentioning yet.
I am very worried to share details here as I fear the negative impact on the case but it was a case of repeated fare evasion (no ticket, short ticket), but no false or altered railcard or anything more serious.
Now it has been more than 3 weeks with no answer from them. This radio silence makes me worry that one day my partner will just receive a court summons.
To the experts here, is this still within the expected wait times? Would they at least send a formal email declining the offer to settle the matter, which was sent through the lawyer or would the next thing to hear be a court summons?

Thank you all in advance!

May probably need more time tho anecdotally use of a solicitor might’ve expected to speed things along.

It would help to know what train company. That won’t identify you. You’ll be one if thousands of evaders they are pursuing.

The more info you feel you can give the better the advice you will get from here.

 

[AlterEgo]

Surely your solicitor is handling this? They’re the person to ask what the progress is.

 

[WesternLancer]

Surely your solicitor is handling this? They’re the person to ask what the progress is.

Maybe the op has noticed more advice is often forthcoming on this forum . But yes solicitor would advise and may depend on how regularly they deal with fares issues as to what timescales they might expect.

 

[scaredperson]

Thank you for your replies!
I am not sure what’s their real abbreviation.
My main question is if they would let us at least know if they decline settlement prior referring the matter to court

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you for your replies!
It is WMT or WMR I am not sure what’s their real abbreviation.
My main question is if they would let us at least know if they decline settlement prior referring the matter to court

I think they would generally and would think almost certainly if you’re usually solicitor.

 

[JordR]

I'm a bit surprised a solicitor advised your partner to admit to cases where there was likely little evidence and then also admit to even more cases that they weren't even raising with you at all. Did they do that?

If your partner was not stopped in person, it's quite likely they wouldn't have had to pay anything at all if they had simply not responded.

 

[WesternLancer]

By admitting other stuff you are cooperating but this may have prompted them to do a data trawl to check your records from their perspective and this might take time.

Co operation of this sort is usually key to getting a settlement out of court from what we see on here.

 

[Hadders]

If you've contacted WMT via a solicitor then I would expect their reply to go back to the solicitor.

In any case, if you're paying a solicitor to handle this then you should chase them and make sure they're doing what you've paid them to do!

 

[scaredperson]

Thank you again for all your answers. I am relieved to hear that they would usually send a note that they decline the offer.