The claimant doesn't have to respond to the Defence unless you also filed a counterclaim. If you have defended and it is a small claim (under £10k) the court will expect you to try mediation. So you should receive an allocation questionaire from the court. This helps the judge decide what steps need to be taken to trial. You will also be asked if you want to try mediation at this point. If you have not heard from the court soon, give them a call to find out when you are likely to hear. So the short answer is that an application to discontinue at this stage is unlikely to succeed. If you think that the claim has absolutely no basis and can be dealt with very quickly, you could apply to strike it out or get summary judgment. If you were to succeed the claim would end. But both applications will incur a fee (unless you are on benefits and entitled to a reduction in the fee). If you agree that you owe something then mediation is a quick way to reaching an agreement on how much that 'something' should be. Hope my ramblings help a little...

Once you get the letter with reasons for the rejection, you will be in a better position to work out what to do next. But the Civil Aviation Authority has an online complaint facility that you can use. It says that it has a big backlog because of the increase in EU delay claims. And it is not an ombudsman service but it will take up valid complaints with the airline.