04-20-2026, 09:06 AM
This is exactly the point where you need to stop looking at the £313 N244 fee as some huge gamble and look at the actual reality of this case.
If this were some borderline situation where there was only a 50:50 chance of the judgment being set aside, then yes, there might be a rational argument for just paying the CCJ within a calendar month and treating that as the safer and slightly cheaper option. But that is not this case. This is plainly a judgment that should never have been entered at all. You had already filed an Acknowledgment of Service and a Defence. The CNBC acknowledged receipt of the Defence. DCB Legal later acknowledged the Defence and engaged with you about the live claim. So the odds of the court refusing to set this aside, and refusing to order repayment of the N244 fee, are extremely low.
You also need to keep in mind that if this claim had proceeded properly to a hearing and you had lost, the amount would almost certainly have been lower than the CCJ figure because the court would not have allowed the false added £70. In any event, this is a winnable claim. The real problem here is not that the claim was suddenly unbeatable. The problem is that DCB Legal and the CNBC have both messed this up and a default judgment has been entered when it should not have been. This is a glitch, not some final and irreversible defeat.
So you really have two sensible options. One is to weather the CCJ for now, continue pressing DCB Legal and CNBC/HMCTS, and give them a short final chance to correct it. The other is to issue the N244 now and get the matter before a judge. Either way, once the judgment is set aside it is expunged from your credit record. What you should not do is let fear push you into paying a judgment that should never have existed in the first place.
The choice should be simple. Just paying the CCJ is exactly what DCB Legal want. They and their client hope that you are "low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree and will pay it out of ignorance and fear". On the facts you have, that would be the irrational option, not the careful one.
If this were some borderline situation where there was only a 50:50 chance of the judgment being set aside, then yes, there might be a rational argument for just paying the CCJ within a calendar month and treating that as the safer and slightly cheaper option. But that is not this case. This is plainly a judgment that should never have been entered at all. You had already filed an Acknowledgment of Service and a Defence. The CNBC acknowledged receipt of the Defence. DCB Legal later acknowledged the Defence and engaged with you about the live claim. So the odds of the court refusing to set this aside, and refusing to order repayment of the N244 fee, are extremely low.
You also need to keep in mind that if this claim had proceeded properly to a hearing and you had lost, the amount would almost certainly have been lower than the CCJ figure because the court would not have allowed the false added £70. In any event, this is a winnable claim. The real problem here is not that the claim was suddenly unbeatable. The problem is that DCB Legal and the CNBC have both messed this up and a default judgment has been entered when it should not have been. This is a glitch, not some final and irreversible defeat.
So you really have two sensible options. One is to weather the CCJ for now, continue pressing DCB Legal and CNBC/HMCTS, and give them a short final chance to correct it. The other is to issue the N244 now and get the matter before a judge. Either way, once the judgment is set aside it is expunged from your credit record. What you should not do is let fear push you into paying a judgment that should never have existed in the first place.
The choice should be simple. Just paying the CCJ is exactly what DCB Legal want. They and their client hope that you are "low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree and will pay it out of ignorance and fear". On the facts you have, that would be the irrational option, not the careful one.
Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience. - Mark Twain
