Defendant filed witness statement late.

[Dannybright]

Witness statements due November 10th. Final small claims case hearing end Jan.

I filed on time.

Defendant filed a week late, asked for the statement to be allowed in any case "as makes no difference to the claimant", no application made though.

Yesterday, a fortnight later, application was actually made for relief from the sanctions.

I object to this. Do not think it is very fair. Their witness statement appears ot have read mine before responding.

Doesn't the civil procedure prevent this? As both parties are not on an equal footing and it unfairly disadvantages one party when the other filed a week late?

Application accepts this is a serious breach, due to a non-disclosed "admin error".

Can anyone advise what to do next? I don't think they should be allowed leniency.

[echat11]

The Court needs to give permission CPR32.10, has the Court given permission?

You could write to the Court giving your reasons for the objection, this may have to be done via an application.

Give the Court a call.

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pr...s%20permission.

[Dannybright]

Just found out there is a hearing for their application on Monday! Hellishly short notice.

Can anyone point me to the CPR and other cases etc to support my claim that allowing them to file late places me at an unfair disadvantage?

[echat11]

You need to prepare a Skeleton Argument, make 3 copies one for the Judge, one for the other party and one for you. You need to hand a copy to the Usher so he can give the Judge a copy. You need to hand the other party a copy before the Hearing. You don't need to use all the Headings, but it does need a structure, each point needs to be numbered, the pages need to be numbered, use short paragraphs. The evidence needs to labeled and tied into the Skeleton Argument.#

Add a Statement of Truth and sign it.

https://hallellis.co.uk/write-skeleton-argument/

32.10 - https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pr...s%20permission.

In your case, there is 'no good reason' to allow the late Witness Statement, other then their advantage, in that they can 'counter' against the points raised in your Witness Statement.

https://www.civillitigationbrief.com...ia-considered/

There will be other cases, just Google for them.

What you are doing is making your case, as you've done in your initial post. The 'unfairness', the advantage etc