Defendant misled the court what can we do

[ALI2024]

Hi, I am not sure if anyone can advise? We won our case - it was for repairs to a car less than 6 months of purchase. However we won considerably less than our claim - partly because the judge din't allow consequential losses (we feel this was unfair but think we are going to have to leave this) but also partly because the defendant misled the court. In our case the total repair bill was c£1500, the warranty company paid c£600 leaving us c£900 which we paid and the claim was for. We had included the invoice for c£900, and showed it had been paid on our credit card statement - it all tallied. However the defendant managed to convince the judge that the warranty company would have paid us back the £600 at a later point (rather than this being the amount they paid directly to the garage towards the whole bill) and therefore we were only owed £300.

He managed to convince the judge by saying "that's how warranties work" and that he had "dealt with warranties for over 15 years". However the warranty - sold to us by HIM - states clearly that all claims are paid directly to the garage. He had not included any aspect of this in his original defence, which simply contests that he is liable, and had not sent us or the court any defendant witness statement or documents, so we had no clue this would be his defence - otherwise obviously we would have referred to the wording in the warranty booklet.

The money is one issue, but the bigger one is that it does not feel like justice has been done - is there anything at all we can do? We have contacted the court but not heard back yet.

[atticus]

Why did you not point this wording out to the court at the time?

You may be able to appeal the decision on the amount of damages.

[ALI2024]

Thank you for your reply - we had no idea at all they were going to try this argument, so we didn't have the wording to hand. Had we known in advance that they were going to use this argument we would have course had the wording with us. When preparing our case the warranty was not the issue - we were claiming the amount we had to pay. How do we go about appealing? There was no information given, and we have had nothing in writing either. Many thanks

[ALI2024]

Thank you for your reply - we had no idea at all they were going to try this argument, so we didn't have the wording to hand. Had we known in advance that they were going to use this argument we would have course had the wording with us. When preparing our case the warranty was not the issue - we were claiming the amount we had to pay. How do we go about appealing? There was no information given, and we have had nothing in writing either. Many thanks

Ps we did point out that this was not the case, but the dealer was very confident about his superior knowledge and experience, and the judge believed him.

[atticus]

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/...+web+FINAL.pdf - read Chapter 9.

You will find other resources in the thread linked in my signature.

[ALI2024]

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/...+web+FINAL.pdf - read Chapter 9.

You will find other resources in the thread linked in my signature.

Thank you, much appreciated. It sounds like you don't generally think an appeal is worth it? Also I notice one of the aspects you include is 7.2 Sharing documents with the other side the process of sharing a list of the evidence you have with the other side is called ‘disclosure’. the aim of it is to make sure everyone has a sense of the bigger picture and can see what the other side is planning to rely on.

In our case the other side effectively ambushed us by coming up with a new argument during the hearing, and were allowed to do this having not supplied any evidence or argument beforehand - can we include this as a procedural issue or is this just something that is allowed? We are feeling that the whole process was so unfair and have lost complete faith in the justice system, as the defendant was basically able to blag his way into reducing his costs by £100s

[atticus]

I am neutral on the question whether you should appeal.

It seems that the document was disclosed. Your point is that the judge accepted an argument that was based on an incorrect interpretation of part of that document.

[ALI2024]

I am neutral on the question whether you should appeal.

It seems that the document was disclosed. Your point is that the judge accepted an argument that was based on an incorrect interpretation of part of that document.

Hi and thanks. The document in question was the warranty document, which was brought up by the defendant during the hearing but was not shared with anyone either during or before the hearing, ie no copy was produced.so does that count as "disclosed"? It certainly wasn't disclosed beforehand. It wasn't included in his documents as he didn't produce any documents or any witness statement, just his original defence (which included lots of incorrect info eg the age and mileage of the car) which had no mention at all that he contested the amount we had lost (he just contested that he had any liability for any of it). We had shared the invoice for the correct amount claimed with the court and the defendant 3 weeks in advance (in our witness statement and evidence), which was the same amount shown on our credit card statement.

The defendant was verbally very confident in claiming that warranties (and the particular warranty he had sold us) paid directly to warranty holders after the event (ie that whilst we had proven that we had paid out, that the warranty company would have paid us back later), because he had "15 years experience and that is what happens". Whilst we knew this was certainly not the case for us (and said this), it was only when we got home that we found and re-read the actual warranty wording which is really clear - they NEVER pay anyone other than the garage directly to either settle or reduce the bill. But we had no idea that he was going to use this argument until the moment it happened in the hearing, otherwise of course we would have checked and included what the actual wording was in our version of events.

Is this OK for someone to simply make something up, with no evidence? The fact is we had an won a valid CRA 2015 case but the amount awarded is based on an incorrect amount so we are £100s out of pocket based on this misleading information and I can't find anything that gives guidance about this particular type of scenario

[atticus]

Your only route to contest this is, as stated in my first post, to appeal.

[ALI2024]

Your only route to contest this is, as stated in my first post, to appeal.

Hello and thanks for this. We have decided to appeal and have found the form (N164?). But the form asks for the date of the order and for us to reference the specific paragraphs of the order that we are appealing. The problem is that we have not received an order, or in fact any documentation at all, and the 21 day limit to appeal is this Friday. I have emailed the court to ask about the lack of an order but they just replied to say they don't give legal advice. So do we just fill in the form and say we don't have an order?? It feels like it is harder to appeal specific points without anything in writing. Many thanks.

[echat11]

Hello and thanks for this. We have decided to appeal and have found the form (N164?). But the form asks for the date of the order and for us to reference the specific paragraphs of the order that we are appealing. The problem is that we have not received an order, or in fact any documentation at all, and the 21 day limit to appeal is this Friday. I have emailed the court to ask about the lack of an order but they just replied to say they don't give legal advice. So do we just fill in the form and say we don't have an order?? It feels like it is harder to appeal specific points without anything in writing. Many thanks.

The most 'prudent' thing might be to get your Appeal in i.e. forms etc. but add that once you receive the Order from the Court you will add the
required details. This is only a 'suggestion'.

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...uide%20section.

[atticus]

You appear to know sufficient: the date of the hearing, the decision you wish to appeal (i.e. the amount of damages awarded), and the reason for that decision (error in understanding the warranty document).

So, as echat11 .advises, get your appeal in.