A little claimant advice please?

[Gonnagetpaid]

Good afternoon all,

I'm hoping that someone will be able to advise me as follows:

I have made a small claims court claim against a company that refused to pay me for work carried out. The case has not been scheduled yet.

In short:

The defendant has ticked a box 'contest juristiction of the court' and also denied that any money is owed.

They have instructed a solicitor to handle their case. I suspect that the defendant will not appear in court and so I will be unable to put answers to them personally, in response to the quite frankly absurd defence. What if the solicitor just sticks to their version?

A letter from the solicitor (which includes the defence statement which is mostly lies and quite riduiculous smokescreens) has said 'You are invited to withdraw your claim' and 'You cannot win the case' and also 'Claimant is on strict proof'.

Now, I have no intention of halting my claim as I have plenty of proof to back it up.

I would just like to know, how, if atall any of the above may make any difference in court?

Many thanks in advance,

Gonnagetpaid

[Amethyst]

Re: A little claimant advice please?

They may have 'accidentally' ticked the contest jurisdiction box - are the defendants in the UK ?

You do have the option to reply to the Defence if you feel it is necessary, however you will have opportunity to put your side further, with your evidences, when you come to filing your witness statements.

Has the solicitor mentioned any application to strike out the claim ? or does the defence invite the court to ?

Have you checked out the solicitors firm ?

[Gonnagetpaid]

Re: A little claimant advice please?

Hiya,

Thanks for the response.

In answer:

Yes, they are located in the same area as me.

No, no mention of striking out claim.

Yes, I do know of the solicitors - why?

[Amethyst]

Re: A little claimant advice please?

Just sometimes people pretend to have solicitors so best to check - the way you described the letter made it sound a bit ranty and unprofessional that's all xx

So contest jurisdiction is an easy box to fill in when acknowledging or defending a claim online - we are often asked whether it should be ticked or not as there is no explanation by it - so I'd guess the court will just ignore it as you are both in England.

So now the defence has been filed you can reply to it, if you wish, or you can wait for your directions questionnaire to come through. The claim will then move to the defendants local court and you will be given a date to exchange witness statements & evidence/exhibits, and you will have a hearing fee to pay ( see the court fees on the hmcts website ).

[Gonnagetpaid]

Re: A little claimant advice please?

Ok, thanks.

What about this bit:

>>>They have instructed a solicitor to handle their case. I suspect that the defendant will not appear in court and so I will be unable to put answers to them personally, in response to the quite frankly absurd defence. What if they do not attend and the solicitor just sticks to their version?<<<

If the defendant is not there but the solicitor just has their word for it in defence and cannot give any answer to my responses, is that likely to hinder proceeedings?

Oh, how much of my evidence do I have to hand over before the court hearing? Every detail?

[Amethyst]

Re: A little claimant advice please?

It will depend on the strength of your evidence and your witness statements. If the claimant isn't there to put his side and relies on his solicitor, who can't answer then the judge will either award the claim to you or adjourn the hearing.

If the defence is absurd then you can reply to it.

I am assuming the amount is under £10k, so if it isn't then it would have slightly different disclosure rules. But yes you need to provide all your evidence before the hearing, or you can't use it in court.

[Gonnagetpaid]

Re: A little claimant advice please?

Thank you very verymuch.

[Gonnagetpaid]

Re: A little claimant advice please?

Hello, I have one more question if I may.

Ok, I understand that I have to provide all my evidence before court - that's fine.

But do I have to go into the actual detail of how I intent to use any bit of evidence?

For example - part of my evidence is numerous emails that I have collected together.

In some places their old emails contain bits which condradict parts of their own evidence, of which I have received a copy.

So, before court do I:

A. Simply state that I have emails but not send the content (and then take copies of content to court).

B. Send all the emails but not state how I will use them (and then take copies of content to court).

C. Send all the emails and state which bits relate to what part of their evidence.

D: Other.

I would greatly appreciate any thoughts/advice on this - thank you.

Gonnagetpaid

[Jojo71]

Re: A little claimant advice please?

Hi,

when we took someone to small claims for non payment I found this really useful

https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-cont...+web+FINAL.pdf

We sent copies of everything we were relying on (emails, text messages etc) but didn't go into detail about how we were going to use them