Faulty car, use of expert in small track

[hillns]

Hi,

I purchased a car which turned out to be faulty and needed some £4K of work to rectify. I've started a claim in the small claims track against the garage, who have entered a Defence.

I want to submit evidence from my repairer as to the cause of the fault and the rectification work required. Whilst they are a main dealer they are unlikely to want to send anyone to Court to given evidence on my behalf and probably the best I can manage is a letter from them.

When I'm filing in the N180 form for the directions questionnaire do I need to include details of my repairer under section D - expert evidence?

Also, is it necessary to serve a reply to the Defence at all?

thanks

[stevemLS]

Re: Faulty car, use of expert in small track

You can, but aren't obliged to, lodge a reply to a defence, if you wish to do so you must file it with the directions questionnaire - see CPR Part 15.

You may not have expert evidence on the small claims track without express permission from the court (CPR 27.5) however the evidence from the main dealer is unlikely to be "expert" evidence within the meaning of the CPR.