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Some background, been going through an insurance claim for the last 5 years, eventually, it went to court this week.
The claimant's witness statements were produced signed dated etc and included the internal document reference number from FB internal document management system at the bottom of each page.
Flint Bishop filed the witness statement electronically with the court and sent me a copy at the same time last month (Sep 2022)
2 days before the court date FB filed a trial bundle electronically with the court and sent me a copy at the same time, this copy was missing the majority of my evidence. They responded with " this was a draft and we will file the correct one shortly" . Another trial bundle was filed electronically with the court containing all the evidence.
I had already printed out all the required documents for my defence annotated them with questions etc. and had them in a folder, this included the claimant's witness statement which was electronically filed with the court in September. I also printed out the trail bundle FB had sent as it was paginated and I expected that this would be used as a common reference.
As I was waiting to go into court I decided to start to put my annotations against the bundle, this is when I noticed the witness statement in the trial bundle had an additional paragraph that was not in the witness statement which was electronically filed with the court in September, but the date, signature and document reference number from FB internal document management system were the same on both documents.
When we got to this witness statement I pointed out the change in the court bundle to the Judge, the claimant's barrister instantly responded that there had been issues producing the bundle and they had initially sent a draft and he was happy to remove this paragraph from the statement. He then proceeded to use some of the information that was in the removed paragraph arguing that it had been disclosed in open court and should be allowed and it formed a large part of the claimant's argument afterwards.
I do feel that this was underhanded and that they were aware that they had done this. is this something that should be reported to some form of governing body if so who ?
The Judge did comment that the trial bundle was not prepared very well and someone at FB "should get a rocket for it", he also called out that he had multiple different filings from FB and was unable to determine which was the latest, non of which had page numbers, unlike my documents which were versioned, dated, paginated and had an accurate table of contents which the judge recommended FB " use the defendant's submissions as an example of what he would expect to receive"
No judgment or summing up was given as he needed more time for deliberations and to take further advice as there was a significant difference in what they were claiming, £9K and their filed accounts with companies house showing tannable assets of £1.4K in total.
I would appreciate any views you have on this.
Thanks in advance
The claimant's witness statements were produced signed dated etc and included the internal document reference number from FB internal document management system at the bottom of each page.
Flint Bishop filed the witness statement electronically with the court and sent me a copy at the same time last month (Sep 2022)
2 days before the court date FB filed a trial bundle electronically with the court and sent me a copy at the same time, this copy was missing the majority of my evidence. They responded with " this was a draft and we will file the correct one shortly" . Another trial bundle was filed electronically with the court containing all the evidence.
I had already printed out all the required documents for my defence annotated them with questions etc. and had them in a folder, this included the claimant's witness statement which was electronically filed with the court in September. I also printed out the trail bundle FB had sent as it was paginated and I expected that this would be used as a common reference.
As I was waiting to go into court I decided to start to put my annotations against the bundle, this is when I noticed the witness statement in the trial bundle had an additional paragraph that was not in the witness statement which was electronically filed with the court in September, but the date, signature and document reference number from FB internal document management system were the same on both documents.
When we got to this witness statement I pointed out the change in the court bundle to the Judge, the claimant's barrister instantly responded that there had been issues producing the bundle and they had initially sent a draft and he was happy to remove this paragraph from the statement. He then proceeded to use some of the information that was in the removed paragraph arguing that it had been disclosed in open court and should be allowed and it formed a large part of the claimant's argument afterwards.
I do feel that this was underhanded and that they were aware that they had done this. is this something that should be reported to some form of governing body if so who ?
The Judge did comment that the trial bundle was not prepared very well and someone at FB "should get a rocket for it", he also called out that he had multiple different filings from FB and was unable to determine which was the latest, non of which had page numbers, unlike my documents which were versioned, dated, paginated and had an accurate table of contents which the judge recommended FB " use the defendant's submissions as an example of what he would expect to receive"
No judgment or summing up was given as he needed more time for deliberations and to take further advice as there was a significant difference in what they were claiming, £9K and their filed accounts with companies house showing tannable assets of £1.4K in total.
I would appreciate any views you have on this.
Thanks in advance
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