Witness statement to be submitted this week

[R0b]

You don't need an index bundle for each exhibit, only for the USB stick - se example below. You could even put it in a table if you wanted but the main point is to ensure that everyone knows what the USB contains.

khouLdixK3.png

As for sub-headings, it is always useful to include these to help the judge in signposting what you are going to then talk about. It's not a strict requirement but I always use them where I can for my own benefit too when I am referring to something specific in my own statement. You don't need to insert amount claimed as that's already on your particulars of claim. The witness statement is the facts and evidence to support your case.
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[jessiesom]

You don't need an index bundle for each exhibit, only for the USB stick - se example below. You could even put it in a table if you wanted but the main point is to ensure that everyone knows what the USB contains.

khouLdixK3.png

As for sub-headings, it is always useful to include these to help the judge in signposting what you are going to then talk about. It's not a strict requirement but I always use them where I can for my own benefit too when I am referring to something specific in my own statement. You don't need to insert amount claimed as that's already on your particulars of claim. The witness statement is the facts and evidence to support your case.
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Thank you Rob, that's useful. Can my friend's witness statement refer directly to some of the evidence in my bundles, rather than duplicating it in their own individual bundle of evidence? I've decided to submit by hand and so I have an extra day of preparation. I'm exhausted now!

[jessiesom]

So, it's another late night preparing the case and it has got me wondering at times whether all of this effort is worth it. Regardless of what happens, hopefully this might deter this man from causing more misery to others. My final question about this part Rob is whether I need to put together a bundle to submit with the witness statement, as the Defendant has sent me one containing copies of he POC, his Defence and Counterclaim, Directions Questionnaire and more? I had just planned on submitting the witness statement, but the directions do say to 'submit copies of all documents on which that party intends to rely at the hearing'. I can't thank you enough for your help, you've been amazingly kind. To the court tomorrow.

[jessiesom]

Rob, once again I just wanted to say thank you to yourself in particular to everyone else on this forum who has helped me. I filed the bundles by hand yesterday and that was a relief. With your assistance they appeared to be well crafted and easy to follow. I hope the Judge shares that opinion. I'm going to prepare this weekend for the hearing which is coming up in a couple of weeks. The Defendant's witness statement appears to be largely irrelevant to the claim so I'm hoping that the Judge see this. Thanks again.

[R0b]

Sorry I thought I already responded to your post about bundles - it's not necessary to provide a bundle at that tim, just witness statement and evidence relied on. You can provide a bundle 72 hours in advance of the hearing.

Now you've got everything out of the way, you probably want to start combing through their witness statement and seeing what you can contradict through the evidence you've submitted. The more holes you can pick in their story, the better chance a judge will find in your favour.*

You may also want to consider issuing a skeleton argument before the hearing which briefly sets out what you intend to say in court but it is not mandatory unless a court orders.

[jessiesom]

Sorry I thought I already responded to your post about bundles - it's not necessary to provide a bundle at that tim, just witness statement and evidence relied on. You can provide a bundle 72 hours in advance of the hearing.

Now you've got everything out of the way, you probably want to start combing through their witness statement and seeing what you can contradict through the evidence you've submitted. The more holes you can pick in their story, the better chance a judge will find in your favour.

You may also want to consider issuing a skeleton argument before the hearing which briefly sets out what you intend to say in court but it is not mandatory unless a court orders.

Thanks Rob, I provided a bundle to the defendant and to the court, hopefully that won't count against me.
I will do as you suggest and comb through their witness statement. I just posted another thread, but I forgot to log in and so it's as a guest, asking for any nuggets of advice for the hearing.

Additionally, I was copied into a letter from the builder a couple of days ago which he has sent to the Clerk at the Court, complaining that my submitting my bundle later than he submitted his places him at a disadvantage and that he was displeased that my friend had delivered the bundle to his property by hand. He has also asked the Court in this letter that they do not allow the evidence I submitted from another party which attests to the fact that they have also raised concern about his work, alleging that he has reported this person to the Police for malicious communications. I'm not sure whether anything will come from this, but it's made me a little more anxious than I was. He has also complained to the court that my including his witness statement in my bundle will be unfavourable for him. I'm not sure what to make of this.

Thanks again for all of your help and advice!

[jessiesom]

I want to firstly thank all on the forum who have helped me with preparing for this case, Rob, in particular. Along with expressing my sincere thanks, I also thought it might be helpful to feedback about the court case which was a few weeks ago, it was very much a learning experience. The case was supposed to last 2-3 hours, however it took 9 hours, albeit 2 of those hours were taken up by the judge reading the case. It was a mixed experience for me in that the Judge found in my favour for the damage caused by the builder, however he offset a large part of this against the Defendant's counterclaim for his substandard work which I had nit paid him for. Having had a chance to reflect, it strikes me that I made a key mistake in my courtroom approach which hopefully others can learn from. Firstly the judge spent a great deal of time identifying the 'issues' in contention, however when it came my time to present my case, I concentrated on addressing these issues and not on discussing all of the holes in the defendant's witness statement. In retrospect I believe that I would have benefited from going through their statement as I had planned to and challenging it. By not doing this I wasn't able to evidence the defendant's lack of credibility and poor workmanship as strongly as I would have done otherwise. The lack of structure to the proceedings threw me a bit and I thought that concentrating my statements on addressing the issues would be the best thing to do. The Judge did not seem to look kindly on the fact that I had avoided mediation and had instead written to the defendant asking them if they wished to make me an offer to settle and I wonder whether writing to the defendant and saying that I would be open to discussing settlement might have been a better approach to have taken. Ultimately the defendant lied and contradicted himself throughout proceedings and was treated as an expert by the Judge, but I believe that as I had not turn challenged his witness statement in full, but only in part I essentially allowed this to happen. I do wonder about the competence of the judge who seemed to get very sidetracked by irrelevant matters and as I noticed the clerks in the court shake their head when speaking about him.*

[R0b]

Thanks for the update and feedback. After the judge offsetting the sub-standard work, were you left with any compensation to be paid to you?

Going to court is always a learning curve for those not used to it and as I'm sure you'll find, it's not a case of simply turning up and trying to argue your case. Obviously from what you have said you encountered a few issues and 9 hours is a long time for a hearing like this. In some cases, it might be best to try and agree a list of issues that the court needs to determine.

These are usually in the form of questions or allegations and can be done in two ways: either in a table with your allegations and on the other side the builder's comments based on his defence. Another way is known as a skeleton argument, which is a more formal document but essentially does what it says on the tin - it is an outline of your argument and normally at the beginning of it you set out a brief summary of facts following by the heading 'issues to be determined by the court'. The issues would be listed something like:

1. Was the builder in breach of contract:

a. by carrying out sub-standard work in respect of the (i) extension, (ii) conservatory and (iii) windows.
b. failing to provide a proper invoice detailing the work carried out and time spent.

In doing the above, the judge can easily identify what he or she has to determine than having to wade through the mess themselves. You can then go through each question one by one setting out your evidence and why the judge should find in your favour.

It is not mandatory for mediation but you do need a reason to avoid it, for example if the builder was stuck in his ways and insisting you owe him all the money, then its possible that mediation is going to be pointless. Other ways of mediation such as inviting the builder to make a settlement offer is a form of ADR, but yes you can say you are open to discussing the matter with a view to settlement which keeps it open.

Always important to go through the witness statement and use the evidence you have to counter what the building is doing. Hopefully, a good experience either way and you can learn from it next time. Always leave yourself plenty of time to prepare otherwise, you will make lots of mistakes as I am sure you now know.