Small Claims hearing - no documents served for counterclaim

[_______]

I have a hearing in the Small Claims track coming up in a couple of weeks. The deadline for serving documents to be used in the hearing has just passed, but the Defendant, who has also filed a counterclaim against me, hasn't served me with anything.

Should I notify the Court of this ahead of the hearing in any way? Clearly if the Defendant has filed documents with the Court itself the judge will be expecting to hear the counterclaim with reliance on those documents, but I will not have been afforded my right to familiarise myself with the basis of the hearing.

If there's any chance this will lead to a rescheduling of the hearing it would save a lot of everyone's time to establish this without having to attend the hearing as currently scheduled. And if the Defendant has missed his chance to properly counterclaim, I think it would be very helpful to make known that he will be forced to rely only on the documents I've submitted, or that the counterclaim will be struck out, ahead of the hearing, as it might finally persuade him to settle. So is there anything I can do to prompt this?

[Amethyst]

Best bet is to give the court a call to inform them you've not received anything from the claimant and could they check if he has filed anything and not served it on you... they will likely make a note on the file, and should they turn up at the hearing with documents that haven't been served on you can ask for it not be allowed to be relied on ( likely resulting in an adjournment for you to assess those documents ).

Did you file a defence to the counterclaim ?

[_______]

Sensible advice, thanks. I just called and the Court were able to confirm to me that nothing had been served.

I have filed a letter of response to the counterclaim (bizarrely, the N271 Notice of Transfer of Proceedings asked me to complete a nonexistent form provided by the Court) which I assume has the effect of a filed defence.

What I did learn was that the Defendant filed their Directions Questionnaire with the Court (and failed to serve it to me - see thread) more than two weeks after the claim had already been allocated a hearing, two months after the deadline for the questionnaire itself!

Should be an interesting hearing.

[davenewbergr]

Always do everything in writing. By all means call the court, but once you have made progress, put it in writing. A letter, or an email, saying something like: "Further to our telephone conversation earlier today, I confirm that I notified you that the Defendant had not served any evidence on me by the date specified in the directions nor at all, and I was advised by you that the Defendant had not filed any evidence with the Court." That letter will be seen by the judge when he reads the file (which we hope he/she has time to do) before the trial. Then send an email or letter to the Defendant: "Please find enclosed copy of my letter to the Court of today's date, the contents of which are self-explanatory. I wondered whether, having not filed nor served any evidence, you now wish to discontinue your counterclaim, and whether you intend to continue to defend my claim without any evidence to support your case?"
A Defence, by the way, is a technical document. It should address every allegation made in the (in this case, counterclaim) and say whether it is admitted, or denied, or whether you don't have the information to enable you to admit or deny.

[_______]

Well no documents materialised anywhere in the end, so the failure to serve was self-evident; nor did the defendant materialise at the hearing. Both were noted when awarding unreasonable behaviour costs at judgement, so great success all round. Thanks for the advice!