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

[MaryS57]

Update:

Despite the DJ giving the Defendant's until 15th Sept to ask the Expert questions - the local court took 1.5 months to send out the printed orders. So the net result was the Defendant was given a further 1.5months to ask the Expert questions until 29th Oct - which they haven't done at all ( I emailed the court to say there were no questions asked by the Defendant.).

So the Expert Report is now well & truly uncontroverted.

The Defendant is now ignoring my emailed offers to settle/and other correspondence - i.e. including my offer return of the whole caravan at significantly less than what it ought to be worth.

Therefore I am now turning to look at preparing the Witness Statement plus exhibits which must be filed and served 14 days prior to trial on 6th Jan 2025. My WS plus Exhibits will the printed out copies and served/filed as hard copies.

My Questions please:-

(1) how is it best to deliver this hard copy to the court (post/in person at the door?)

(2) The Defendant does not seem to do letters!. I do not wish the Defendant to simply email out to me a load of files/docs for the trial as this will simply be irritating and then i have to print them all out. I sent a letter by regular post (in Aug 2024) to the Defendant stating that I "no longer accept service by email." Will this suffice to ensure I get a hard copy of the Defendant's Witness Statement & Exhibits and not a load of annoying electronic files?

JK2054 stated today at #2 "You can serve by email and/or post so long as party hasn't specifically said by post."

https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...s-and-to-court

But my understanding of reading various caselaw and (CPR Part 6?) is that the default is "by post" and only if the other party agrees in writing can it be by email - but please correct me if I'm wrong.

[MaryS57]

P.S. I also sent hard copies of my offers to the Defendant - so they actually get both post/email for most of the docs I send them.

[Pezza54]

I personally would send the documents by Royal Mail Signed For to the court and first class post with receipt as proof of postage to the defendant. The postman may not be able to deliver Signed For post to the defendant
You were correct to write to the defendant stating you can no longer receive emails and attachments. Allowance must be made for internet connection problems and for the internet service being completely cut off

[MaryS57]

Many Thanks.

Just to confirm the letter I sent to the Defendant saying that I "no longer accept service by email" - was sent by post and email, so that's good.

The Defendant seems to be disregarding anything I say and he gives the air of arrogance/disdain for me.
I don't put it past him to ignore my request for hard copies and simply email out the stuff (assuming he sends anything to me and not just to the court, which he has been doing in the past). But I guess, it's best to deal with this scenario if it comes to pass.