witness statement not received from the other party

[Maryb1235t]

the judge ordered witness statements simultaneously to be served to the court and the other party 28 days before the hearing but i havent had a copy sent to me by the defendant, its now 4 days overdue from the deadline. Ive emailed the court to see if its been served to them and the hearing paid for and im awaiting a response but do you know if serving late/none submission to the other party but not to the court still breaches the directions and means that their evidence cant be used in court?

its frustrating as i cant prepare a supplementary witness statement or even see what theyve argued at all when i turn up at the court hearing

ive also emailed and sent a letter to the defendant too


the court letter says failing to serve means we wont be able to give evidence but doesnt mention strike outs

[R0b]

General rule is that if witness statements are not served within the time required on the Order, that party cannot rely on the evidence unless the court gives permission. Striking out a witness statement is an entirely separate matter so it won't say that in the order.

At the start of the hearing you should mention that the other side has not filed and served a witness statement at all or it has been very late, in breach of the Order and therefore the other side should not be entitled to rely on their evidence in support of their defence.

[Maryb1235t]

brilliant thanks so much for the quick reply rob , would that count if they havent served the witness statement to me but have served to the court in time? the defendant has been extremely unreasonable throughout this entire case adding future payments and new costs halfway through the case (via letters from his solicitor) without making amendments either.

If they lie and say they sent it to me in the hearing can i ask them to show proof with a receipt of recorded delivery? ive kept all my recorded receipts for this purpose just in case.

[Maryb1235t]

ok so i recieved it this morning and in his statement he handwrote the date it was signed on 20th and signed to be submitted to court which was 21/07/2020 the filing date was the 17th. Shall i just bring this up on the court date and not mention it beforehand?
they have instructed their solicitor to act for them (individual defendant not a company) their evidence contains a lot of hearsay and consists solely of emails about asking me to pay after they started their counterclaim not before the claim with no hard evidence of anything (their claim is for monies owed for services they hired and want me to pay half for but i never agreed to)

[R0b]

They can't just add on costs as they see fit, there has to be a legal right to do so. Worth mentioning that they failed to comply with filing and serving a statement but on most occasions judges let it slide if its a few days rather than last minute, unless you've been severely prejudiced by the delay.

[Maryb1235t]

Okay I will do thank you is it worth mentioning their witness statement doesn't state the facts in their case are their own knowledge and they have a very brief statement of truth that says they belief the facts in the statement are true.

Their witness statement contains no evidence against my claim just irrelevant emails about something not to do with the case none of which are in order and most are cut off

Their witness statement section in support of their counterclaim is 1 paragraph and doesn't have evidence at all in it. They just say in regards to their counterclaim they believe I owe money

Bearing in mind his solicitor looked his statement over and approved it I'm quite shocked at how little evidence they provided and how they haven't stated anything in support of their counterclaim