Advice on a defence to a claim please - URGENT

[sharon1610]

Good morning
Joined this forum after reading some really helpful information so hoping someone can help me today. To cut a long story short, my husbands former employer has put a claim in on him because after 1 year of employment my husband left to continue what he has been doing for the past 20 years - and the clients followed as they have worked with my husband for 20 years and followed my husband to his new job and subsequently when he left. Anyway there seems to be something wrong with the system as the claimant isn't following CPR and I really need some advice as witness statements are due in 8 days......the process has been:
Claim entered against us
We sent in the defence
We entered a counterclaim
The claimant sent in their defence to counter claim - within this defence their opening statement was headed "Reply to defence" and then continued to reply to our defence. They had documents there which we know only came from my husbands personal email account and lastly at the end of their defence they asked to adjust their original claim by adding in costs for the proceedings that are still taking place. They also adjusted the claim for other things and it has now doubled. I then entered a request to strike out their defence. We had a hearing on Friday and it clearly proves the judge doesn't actually look at any of the evidence because he said that you can reply to a defence and also IF they have adjusted their original claim and we have known about it and didn't do anything then yes it can be allowed, so strike out was not granted. However after reading further and the rules of CPR it does say that to reply to a defence you must file a directions questionnaire (the claimant hasn't done this) and to amend a claim you must seek permission and file a directions questionnaire (the claimant hasn't done this-only by a typed paragraph at the end of their defence) which shows the judge didn't check on this. We have to enter witness statements in 8 days and the trial date is set for the 1st November.
How do I "dispute/appeal" the judges decision or ask for the claimants adjustments to be inadmissible due to incorrect CPR etc. Can I do this when I submit witness statements so they don't have enough time to then file directions questionnaire? Or is it best to address this asap?
Any help would be appreciated. x

[Amethyst]

Re: Advice on a defence to a claim please - URGENT

You can reply to a defence at any point really after the defence has been filed, but amending the claim or defence should be via an application yes, but it seems your judge has allowed it so you just need to move forward and combat their arguments with your witness statement. It doesn't make a huge amount of sense if you applied to strike and the judge says he's allowing it because you did nothing about it... doh! But sometimes these things are best being let go else it can ramp up costs.

In your husbands employment contract are there restrictive covenants ? ie. clauses about taking customers ? Time limits on those customers ? Clauses about customers he brought with him to the first ? It's normal for customers that came with an employee to be okay to leave with the employee, but those gained since the employee starting to not be allowed to go.

When you say your husbands personal email account - was it actually his personal/private account or his work account ? If personal, how did they get access to it ?

[sharon1610]

Re: Advice on a defence to a claim please - URGENT

Hi - thanks so much for your prompt reply. My only concern is that we have very little time to now "defend" the additional change to their claim - but as you say maybe just address that when the trial date takes place - although court papers will show the claim as X amount but with their increase - where will this be shown as it was just amongst their typed defence? The funny thing is that my husband only had a letter of offer - the company never had a signed contract from with any restraints etc so they really have no case! They are claiming 24% "profit" from the 5 purchase orders my husbands serviced (which the clients cancelled so they could go with my husband). Yes the documents were in his private email account - not work but he left it in favourites with automatic sign in on the company laptop doh!!

[Amethyst]

Re: Advice on a defence to a claim please - URGENT

Okay purchases already in process through the company would likely be different if they were cancelled to go with your husband. Were they servicing contracts/agreement or product sales ?

not work but he left it in favourites with automatic sign in on the company laptop doh!!

oops. Still they have no right to access that email account if it is his private email - presumably he has changed his password now! There are a few threads regarding accessing work and personal emails on work equipment/servers and the legalities of using that information.

[sharon1610]

Re: Advice on a defence to a claim please - URGENT

HI - the purchase orders were supply of labour (no client terms of business in place) and they cancelled them so my husband could take them over. What do you think of their chances??

[Amethyst]

Re: Advice on a defence to a claim please - URGENT

Very difficult to have an idea without much more info ( their claim and the defence/reply to defence)

What is the actual basis of their claim legally ?

[sharon1610]

Re: Advice on a defence to a claim please - URGENT

They are claiming 24% profit on the 5 purchase orders that my husband serviced. 1 days salary as he was paid in advance on the day he resigned (forgot to mentioned he resigned under constructive dismissal) and expenses of £400 but we have bank statement evidence to throw that one out!

- - - Updated - - -

They have no legal term for claiming just as I have listed