Southeastern - out of court settlement

[Guest159]

Dear members,

Can you please advice when writting to Southeastern (in responce to their letter of “provisionally authorized for prosecution”) asking about out of court settlement, shall I state the amount I am ready to pay or just ask/beg about the settmenet without mentioning the amount, which one is more correct approach from your experience?

Also, from your experience, how big are the chances with Southeastern to settle out of court? Thanks a lot for help!

 

[antharro]

It really would depend on the severity of the offence and how far the correspondence with them has gone so far. Can you give any more information? And what correspondence, if any, have you received / replied to?

 

[Guest159]

So far I have only recieved the letter from Southeastern that the case is provisionally authorised for prosecution and they are asking to reply, there was no other comunication. Thanks

 

[mikeg]

I think what antharro is asking is what happened to get you reported for prosecution? At what station did you board and when? Did you make any attempt to pay or have any ticket at all? We need to gauge the severity of your actions in order to tell you whether an out of court settlement is likely at all. People have indeed settled with South Eastern but it depends on what you did as well as how you approach it. My blanket suggestion is to reply with a matter of fact but apologetic letter offering to pay their costs plus the full fare due. We do however need more info. Has the letter said what you are likely to be charged with?

 

[najaB]

So far I have only recieved the letter from Southeastern that the case is provisionally authorised for prosecution and they are asking to reply, there was no other comunication. Thanks

We really can't comment on the probability of reaching a settlement without at least some of the details of the incident.

 

[falcon]

Does it mention the offence involved.

 

[Guest159]

No it does not mentioned any specifics about the offence

 

[swt_passenger]

No it does not mentioned any specifics about the offence

But you must know what you did or didn’t do to get into this position? Unless you give us a clue how can anyone help?

 

[cuccir]

In answer to the very simple question: we usually suggest not stating an amount. The way it's often phrased is 'the fare owed and any costs incurred in investigating this matter'.

However as the others have said, with regards to likelihood of a settlement we can't comment without detail of what happened -see the questions in this post

 

[Guest159]

In answer to the very simple question: we usually suggest not stating an amount. The way it's often phrased is 'the fare owed and any costs incurred in investigating this matter'.

However as the others have said, with regards to likelihood of a settlement we can't comment without detail of what happened -see the questions in this post

Thank you Cuccir.

 

[MikeWh]

With the greatest of respect @Guest159 you seem to be completely unwilling to give us any details about the offence involved, depsite several polite requests. There is nothing further that we can add if you aren't prepared to help us advise you, so this thread is now locked.

If you wish to receive further help, please report this post and provide the details requested. We will then consider unlocking it.