Small Claim - false accusation with strong evidence

[WT2016]

Hi,

We have received a small claims court notification (Money Claim Online) for poor workmanship of an installation. The amount is only small at £500, but the accusations are 100% completely false.
Without going into details about the job - we have photographic evidence that will categorically blow the claim out - without question. However, I'm more frustrated that this has been filed against us and would like to make sure that this person is not able to make these false claims against us, or any other small business in the future.

Can the person making the claim be brought to book on this? If the judge (or anyone else) reviews the photos we have and throws the claim out, can we sue for false accusation? Could they be in contempt of court? I'm not sure if that is a thing in a small claims case. I'd hope there is some way that we can address this.
We could possibly counterclaim but its hard to prove loss of trade as a direct result of what they are alleging.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[echat11]

Hi WT2016

des8 Can you take a look and advise, many thanks.

[des8]

If you are really intent on a course of action it would need to be for contempt of court, probably alleging they had knowingly made a false statement in an affidavit, affirmation or other document verified by a statement of truth or in a disclosure statement (CPR 81.3(5)(b)).

Suggest you look through the CPR first to see what you need to do, and then decide if it is worth the effort and stress

[smintram]

@WT2016The first thing you do, is to acknowledge the claim. That will buy you extra time to file a defence. Don't tell the claimant at this time that you have photos. Wait and see what they say in their witness statement/draft....open a MCOL account...it'll speed things up.