Customer issued court proceedings against us (small family run garage)

[andydd]

Well. You could then put in a official application to strike out, dunno what the fee is £40 maybe, if there is a clear breach then you should win....but your judge does seem very lenient.

 

It's only small track so there are no rules on disclosure and only directions and case management for complex issues, I'd just expect yours to go to hearing.

[Mike_hawk]

I'm so annoyed with the court.

 

Phoned them today and they told me that the court fee of £170 has been paid but the allocation fee is still outstanding but the claimant has tried to pay the fee today but for some reason couldn't process the payment???? not sure why as he didn't say.

 

He also said that the witness statement that i sent for the judge last week hasnt been given to the judge because it was filed with the other witness statements in the file and wouldn't be even looked at until the hearing even though i attached a covering letter requesting that it gets placed in front of a district judge. The clerk told me that if it's too long the judge won't bother to read it cos then we would have to pay for his time LOL. He said really, we should of just sent a brief letter objecting about the owed allocation fee.

 

I asked him if he could send up the witness statement to a judge and he said that he would but again he doesn't know if he will even read it, so I've wrote a brief letter and I'm going to fax that to the court too. Well pi**ed off!!!

 

We've not even had any direction as to what is required inbetween now and the hearing regarding disclosure. I think we will just turn up empty handed.

 

That's appalling behaviour from the court staff, it would present a 1 page letter to a judge but not if its in the form of a statement.... I think I'd be complaining to the court manager and asking when it fell within his staffs remit to decide what can and cannot be presented.

 

If dq's and/or evidence have not been exchanged or allocation fee remains unpaid fixing a trial date would be a waste of the courts time and resources.

[Emz0305]

Received a letter from the court today saying 'Your letter dated 30 May 2014 has been referred to the District Judge who has commented as follows: The matter remains listed.'

 

Nice!

 

Also received what must be the claimants disclosure in the post today consisting of the following documents:

 

Photo evidence

2 witness statements

A scribbled note mentioning that an engineers report will be in our hands by Friday and also the cost of said report??

Copy of claimants vague Particulars of Claim

List of costs and court fee's

Phone log

Vehicle Mileage evidence

Claimants Statement of Truth (witness Statement)

 

He mentions in his list of costs that they're all receipted but there is not one receipt enclosed?? Again there appears to be contradictions from his past correspondence.

 

What do we do now? What do we need to prepare for the hearing?

 

We are not very confident of a result after the favouritism that's been shown to the claimant :/

 

I need help!! I've not a clue what I'm doing and think I'm going to fail big time, plus my dad is not confident about having to speak in court and hasn't a clue what is expected of him on the day.

[Emz0305]

I'm looking back through all of his letters and documents from the start and I have a headache and I now feel sick. I'm really struggling knowing where to start. There's loads and loads of changes, firstly he was claiming for 2 missed gigs, now 7?? firstly at a cost of £300, now £580? His total costs so far are up to £1986.07 plus 'Unknown cost of Engineers report and attendance in court if required. What engineer is going to give a report on a vehicle which was repaired 9 months ago? Surely he won't just give a report on a few photo's and bolts in a box?

[Emz0305]

Oh and the court has not even mentioned an engineers report?? Can't cope, my head is spinning, NEED WINE!!

[raydetinu]

Got on to this late, but would imagine without an experts witness report at the very least, the claimant should not get very far.

I presume you have witness statements from the mechanic or anybody else that saw the vehicle at the garage or worked on it.

[Emz0305]

No, he was willing to give a statement but didn't want to attend court as he said he felt intimidated by the claimant after he tried to get him sacked etc. My dad chose not to get him involved as his work was checked by my dad after completion anyway. He was in his final weeks of his level 3 apprenticeship and was basically only waiting for his certificates to come through so was more than capable of doing the job.

 

Regarding the Engineers Report, don't the court have to give permission for one? and what would it achieve now if the car was supposedly repaired 8 months ago? what would an engineer go on? surely if he can't inspect the vehicle whilst the damage and parts were in situ how can he even give an opinion?

[andydd]

Don't worry. First time is a bit scary, but it will be in the judges room not a court room and you'll be treated fairly and judge will help explain matters. It's upto the other side to prove his case and from what we've seen his case is all gooblygook, I certainly can't understand it !

 

You appear to have a good mind and the paperwork you've posted up is concise and clear, unlike his !

 

Don't worry about costs of gigs, etc I don't think he has any chance of success and it is very unlikely he would be allowed any consequential loses he appears to be claiming.

 

And yes, if an experts report is to be used, then permission must be obtained first.

[Emz0305]

Would we have received written confirmation by the court if permission had been given for a report?

 

So the hearing will be the same as when we attended the application hearing back in march? The judge even said in that hearing that having a report done now that the car had been repaired was a bit pointless and he also said to the claimant I assume you had a proper garage do it? The claimant said yes, but he didn't, he got some mechanic friends to do it and in his early letters even confirmed that he would do it with the help and guidance of his mechanic friends. Now in his latest statement that we received yesterday he is saying that the car was repaired when he went on holiday to turkey. Still no sign of any invoices or receipts from him either for any work that was done, surely he would have sent them to us as well considering he states that everything he is claiming for is reciepted even the typing he's claiming for £150 lol

[SuperVillain]

Which Court is this? I've had the CCBC tell me they will not ask a Judge review a 1 page defence to strike out a claim without paying the (then £45) application fee...

[Emz0305]

It's Rhyl County Court

[raydetinu]

I mean that the claimant should of got a report at the time it failed! to confirm the cause; agree absolutely no use now.

[Emz0305]

Many things could have caused that fan belt to snap so how could he possibly prove fault when the car drove for 6 months without any problems? His document titled 'Mileage History' doesn't add up either. Have attached a copy of his Mileage history see if anyone can make any sense of it.[ATTACH=CONFIG]51347[/ATTACH]

[Emz0305]

From his MOT dated October 2013, he did 12,008 miles that year so that means that he travelled approx 6,000 miles between march and september, not the nearly 3000 like he is trying to make out.

[andydd]

Which Court is this? I've had the CCBC tell me they will not ask a Judge review a 1 page defence to strike out a claim without paying the (then £45) application fee...

 

I mentioned this earlier, if you really want a Judge to look at something and decide to take a course of action then you have to pay a fee, although there are various parts of the CPR that allow the court to use its initiative to strike out parts/all the claim and it would appear resonably that you 'prompt' the court to do this, but in my experience nothing comes of it.

[andydd]

Would we have received written confirmation by the court if permission had been given for a report?

 

So the hearing will be the same as when we attended the application hearing back in march? The judge even said in that hearing that having a report done now that the car had been repaired was a bit pointless and he also said to the claimant I assume you had a proper garage do it? The claimant said yes, but he didn't, he got some mechanic friends to do it and in his early letters even confirmed that he would do it with the help and guidance of his mechanic friends. Now in his latest statement that we received yesterday he is saying that the car was repaired when he went on holiday to turkey. Still no sign of any invoices or receipts from him either for any work that was done, surely he would have sent them to us as well considering he states that everything he is claiming for is reciepted even the typing he's claiming for £150 lol

 

Yes..Courts dont allow experts reports without permission because they are costly (the court allows £750) but as amll claims courts are generally no/low costs it is demands permission be granted before either side has an experts report, although Im not sure what happens if you have a report but you dont intend to recover the costs of it.

 

Im not sure about small claims but in other cases, there is a list of experts and one chooses someone from that list, although this may only apply to criminal courts.

[Emz0305]

Oh no, he's reckons he's got an engineers report and he seems to think we're picking up the bill for it

[andydd]

He'll get nothing unless he wins and in case he needs permission as pet CPR 35.

[Emz0305]

Well he's not adhered to any CPR so far along the way so why start now? lol

 

Do we need to do anything now before the hearing date? What do we take to the court on the day? Do we need to disclose all all the documents to court and claimant that we will be taking on the day? We've not had any directions from the court as to what to do next, was only given a date for trial.

[andydd]

As mentioned above there is no real 'disclosure' process for small claims.

 

Your docs should consist of your defence, (The statement of case), any witness statements, other relevavnt docs that youve mentioned in your defence (perhaps refer to them as Exhibit 1 or Photo 1).

 

All pof this info. should be sent to the court and the other side. Courts also say you should take all original docs to court although Ive never been asked for them.

 

Its not unusal to not get directions, its just bothe sides exchange their docs, send em to court and thats it..you both turn up on the day.

[Emz0305]

When do they generally have to be at the court by? I didn't mention the claimants correspondence in the defence I don't think, I kept it very basic, but he has constantly changed his story along the way through his many different letters. Firstly he said that he would not let my dad see the vehicle and that when he arrived at my dads garage with the box of parts (nuts bolts etc) that he gave my dad a chance to cover the cost of the repair, which basically is what happened, he demanded that my dad pay for the repair costs which he said were already up to £500. In his more recent statements he has changed his story and said that he gave my dad a chance to repair the vehicle but my dad wasn't interested haha which is totally untrue and contradicts his own first recollection of events. I wish I could show all his witness statements from october for you to see the contradictions.

[andydd]

He shouldnt be allowed to keep changing his Defence/Witness Statement, there should only be one..the first one, to change or amend it needs permission (there will be a seperate hearing and cost for this).

 

You can add extra documents but only if the original Defence makes reference to them. As he hasnt asked for permission to amend, I'd turn up to court with his original defence and refer to that, if he tries to use later updated ones, tell the Judge.

 

The Docs before the court should be:-

 

A. Original brief details of claim.

D. Acknowledgement of claim/brief details of defence.

A. Full statement of case\witness statement(s).

A. Any docs\case law, etc refered to in SoC.

D. Full statement of case\witness statement(s).

D. Any docs\case law, etc refered to in SoC.

 

A= Applicant

D=Defendant.

[Emz0305]

Andy you say defence, but he is the claimant?

[Emz0305]

Oh god I'm so confused, my head is going to explode lol I have a bout of tonsillitis too so I can't think very straight at the moment.

 

His witness statement's or 'statement of Truth' as he sometimes likes to title them, are recalling the events leading up to the claim and have somewhat changed over the duration. Would he need to seek permission to do this? Surely the truth shouldn't change though? His very first recollection of the events should be what the judge takes note of?

[andydd]

My mistake..Ignore the bit about his 'defence'.

 

Hi original statement of case (or whatever he likes to call it) should be it, see CPR 17, he CANT go changing it.

 

If I were you I'd go to court with just his first/original one in your hands and only be prepared to refer to this, if he starts bring up stuff mentioned in later ones then bring this to the attention of the Judge.

 

I dont believe that a Judge is go9ng to be too happy with his documentation, its alll over the place and I dont think anyone here who has read it can make head nor tail of it and hopefully the Judge will be the same.