Small claims court preliminaryt hearing advice

[Luddite]

Hello,
First time poster so be gentle with me!
I'm taking action through the small claims court to settle a dispute regarding a motorcycle purchase. Briefly, I bought a bike from the UK concessionaire. The bike is covered by a two year parts and labour guarantee but the concessionaire has repeatedly failed to honour the guarantee. The bike developed a lot of problems and after five months into my ownership the rear suspension collapsed and I decided I'd had enough and demanded a full refund.
The concessionaire has done everything he can to delay and frustrate the court process but finally next week we have a preliminary hearing and the judge has ordered the defendant's solicitors to arrange a conference telephone call between the judge myself and the defendant..

I've no experience of this and wondered how this process works. Is everybody talking together or does the judge switch from one party to the other? I'm doing my own representation but the defendant has a solicitor.
Has anybody been through this and if so are there any pointers you can provide?
Thanks in anticipation.

[wales01man]

Re: Small claims court preliminaryt hearing advice

If you are not confident doing this seek advice from your own Solicitor the judge may be Ok their Solicitor may not be you are up against a Professional

[Amethyst]

Re: Small claims court preliminaryt hearing advice

The conference call will be all of you in the 'virtual' room together. Only speak when spoken to, be respectful and polite and don't interrupt unless it is extremely important, and then 'if I may have permission to speak Sir' , and never interrupt the Judge.

Mediation is where the call is switched form one party to another and you don't actually hear each other.

[Luddite]

Re: Small claims court preliminaryt hearing advice

That's very useful to know, many thanks.

[Okeydokey]

Re: Small claims court preliminaryt hearing advice

That's very useful to know, many thanks.

I had a go at this on an industrial tribunal case and actually enjoyed it. I received a letter giving me a telephone number, a code number and a time. I phoned a few minutes before and the judge was on the line already. He kept asking if any one was there. Once the other party turned up on the phone, they introduced themselves. The judge then explained the process to me. Being polite and calm is a golden rule, with mine the judge did start by setting the scene as he saw it. He then went on to ask questions of us both to establish what the key points were. His job was not to make a decision at that point but to establish the facts that were being disputed, and trying to make sure we all knew what we were asking for. All rather calm and satisfying. If you say something wrong in respect of the law he will put you right, he may ask the other party for their version, then he will probably ask each of you to do certain things before a hearing, I was asked to read some statute to see I how I felt it applied. He gave me the reference and gov. web site so I could find it easy enough.

Hope that helps, good luck and I wouldn't worry, it doesn't hurt!