Defence written "without prejudice" - will a small claims court judge accept this?

[Pezza54]

Thanks for the update. So far it is looking promising.
I'm just not sure now who decides if the expert witness need to attend the hearing
3 hours or all day? That's a lot of extra time for the expert to present his report and answer questions. I assume the defendant could end up paying the expert if you win your claim. Did the judge mention how the expert's fees are paid?

[MaryS57]

The time for the Defendants to ask questions of the Expert has now passed.

The Defendants chose not to ask the Expert any questions -even though the District Judge at the Preliminary Hearing hinted strongly to them that they could. Reading between the lines, if they had any criticisms of the report they needed to address these directly to the Expert himself, so he can explain more fully.

The Defendants did not avail themselves of that opportunity (possibly because they thought that the Expert's answers would be unhelpful in any event ).

This means that the CPR35- compliant Expert Report is now uncontroverted.

If the Defendant wants the Expert present at trial, this would cost £642 in Expert fees & they would need to seek the courts permission first.

I am presuming I would resist this request on the basis that the Defendants haven't even asked written questions & bringing an expert to a small claim hearing is rare and not necess in the present case. .

The district judge assigned my £415 that I had already paid out for the Expert report as "court costs"

[Pezza54]

It is very unlikely the defendant will request the expert witness to attend the hearing. They missed their opportunity to pose set questions. The judge is almost certain to refuse such a request. The cost of an additional £642 is prohibitive too