Rule 31.14 request

[sallybburn]

I made a Money Claim related to a consumer dispute. D filed an AoS today. They failed to reply to the LBA despite accepting they received it.

Following the filing of the AoS, D's solicitor has now sent a request by email:

"Turning now to the claim, we request the following documents pursuant to CPR 31.14:

• A copy of the contract between you and Pxx Limited;
• A copy of the email from your husband to the salesperson employed at Pxx Limited;
• A copy of the advert upon which you relied;
• Notes and evidence of calls and video calls between you and the salesperson;
• Evidence that the car has been in an accident;
• Evidence of the repairs to the vehicle following the accident;
• The Dxx report;
• A copy of your instructions to Dxx;
• Evidence of the repairs to the vehicle and the cost of £2,413.50 to you (to include receipts and reasons for the repairs);
• Evidence of what you claim to be the true value of the vehicle;
• A copy of the log book relating to the vehicle (Mercedes-Benz C Class, registration number xxxxxxxxxxx

Finally, if you do not understand the content of this email, we recommend that you seek independent legal advice."


Do I have to supply these things please?

[NBluth]

I believe you only have to disclose the documents mentioned in your statement of the case (particulars of claim).

These are just my own observations as a lay person, in the process of taking my own case to court. Hopefully someone more experienced will be along shortly.

[MIKE770]

This stage only listed on claim form

[sallybburn]

Thank you. I thought as much. I have checked and anything referred to in the particulars of claim is already disclosed to their client, wither by post or email.

Am I right in thinking that in order for the request to be valid they must undertake to pay the copying costs under rule 31.15 (c)?

31.15 Where a party has a right to inspect a document–

(a) that party must give the party who disclosed the document written notice of his wish to inspect it;

(b) the party who disclosed the document must permit inspection not more than 7 days after the date on which he received the notice; and

(c) that party may request a copy of the document and, if he also undertakes to pay reasonable copying costs, the party who disclosed the document must supply him with a copy not more than 7 days after the date on which he received the request.

[MIKE770]

offer to pay

[sallybburn]

They made the request, shouldn't they offer to pay. I would be the one incurring the cost. I am C they are D. They want documents off me.

[NBluth]

For hard copies something say 20p per page, doesn't seem unreasonable.

You could say something like, "I will provide the documents to which the Defendant is entitled under CPR 31.14. Under CPR 31.15 I am entitled to reasonable copying costs incurred in complying with this request. Please confirm you will pay my reasonable copying costs."


If you know how many pages that is, you could amend the above accordingly.

The 7 day time limit does not appear to commence until they confirm they are responsible for reasonable copying costs incurred in complying with this CPR 31.14 request. (Which I am assuming they have not stated in their correspondence with you).

[sallybburn]

Thank you. I rang my union helpline and a solicitor from a commercial litigation department rang me and confirmed what had been said above.

I sent the email below based on what I was told:

Having taken legal advice, I have been told to send the following:

Part 31 of the CPR does not apply to small claims.

Putting aside the issue regarding small claims, a defendant is entitled to inspect documents referred to in the statement of case of a claimant as per 31.14. Disclosure under 31.14 is strictly limited to documents referred to in that statement of case. You have sent a list that goes way beyond the scope of what a competent solicitor acting in good faith would believe they are entitled to under rule 31.14.

If a defendant wishes to inspect those documents they should make a request under 31.15 (a). Copies of documents that a defendant has the right to inspect may be requested by a defendant under rule 31.15(c) if they give an undertaking to pay the reasonable costs of such copy production. No such undertaking has been given by you or your client.

Having checked emails between myself and your client, I believe that your client already has copies of all documents referred to in the statement of case that they would be entitled to under 31.14, if it applied to small claims.

Please can you clarify the request you made yesterday given the above. In order to assist with the overriding objective I am willing to comply with properly made requests and to help where I am able and where it is not detrimental to either my case or the interests of justice.

I feel that I must remind you that I am not legally represented and would once again refer you to the SRA rules for dealing with LiP's and would you refer you also to rule one of the CPR - This is a simple, low value claim (that your client ignored the pre action correspondence for) and it should be litigated as such.

[R0b]

Only thing I would say is that the solicitor who you spoke to seems to have fell into the trap of many others.

CPR 31.14 doesn't apply to claims allocated to the small claims track - there is no such thing as a small claim. Up until the claim has been allocated to that track, CPR 31.14 is still applicable regardless of a small claim or not, though it does help you somewhat by explaining that their client already has copies of what is being asked.

Otherwise what you've replied with is fine.

They might argue that they should be sent by email to avoid copying costs but you can say that there will time spent scanning so there still needs to be costs accounted for there.

[sallybburn]

They made the point that it currently applies but wont apply to half the list which they would be entitled to after allocation when the witness statement is made. The sol said something about proportionality and the overriding objective, but t was lost on me.

If they had made the list shorter and given the undertaking then I would have sent the copies, but it seems like a very broad fishing expedition under the cover of 31.14. I have checked my emails and because I made a formal complaint to the bank before issuing the s.75 claim as a MCOL they literally have everything they could get under 31.14 anyway. I suspect their client hasn't bothered to send them the 9 months of correspondence and document sharing!

Also, I don't have a scanner and some documents are paper based, so they would either have to buy me a scanner or accept paper

[sallybburn]

The bank have put a defence in:

5. However, the Defendant was not a party to the transaction and had no direct involvement in relation to it. Subsequently, in an email of 15 October 2020, the Claimant has refused to provide copies of the relevant contractual documentation. Accordingly, save as aforesaid, the Defendant is unable to admit or deny paragraph 3 and the Claimant is required to prove the same. In particular: (i) that she was party to a purchase agreement entered into with the Dealership in relation to the Vehicle; (ii) the date of such purchase agreement; and (iii) the express and implied terms of the purchase agreement.

6. For the reasons set out above, the Defendant is unable to admit or deny paragraph 4 and the Claimant is required to prove the same. In particular, insofar as she contracted with the Dealership, the Claimant is put to strict proof as to her reasoning for doing so.


The above is nonsense. I sent them copies of these documents months ago, by email (of which I have the sent emails) and rather funnily they sent me SAR Data on 16 October that includes all the documents they claim not to have.

Should I do anything about the misleading nature of 5 and 6? They simply aren't true statements. What annoys me most is that in my emails to them when they made the 31.14 references, I made it clear that I had sent them the documents and the email already.

[NBluth]

You can submit a Reply to Defence when submitting the Directions Questionnaire. You need to respond to each individual point, or else it’s taken to be admitted.

You can search what a Reply to Defence looks like on the forum, and could also have a look on my thread for what a Reply to Defence looks like.

[MIKE770]

Example Defence for reference

[sallybburn]

Do you think I should send a formal reply regarding those paragraphs? What they have said simply is not true.

[NBluth]

If you’re going to reply, I would only do so via the Reply to Defence where you will dispute those paragraphs.

When you get to the stage of exchanging witness statements, you will be able to include your evidence at that point, and if it shows what they have said in their defence to be untrue, I would expect that will give them major credibility issues in court, where you are arguing on the balance of probabilities.