Court evidence rules

[Geoff]

We are a small Limited company and defendant in a small claims case in the county court. Recently before the final hearing the company ceased trading, we notified the court and the claimant. Unknown to us the claimant wrote a letter to the court saying something along the lines of, we were still trading, nothing had changed and we were probably just avoiding the case.
The judge ordered that the case continue and sent us a notice to that effect which arrived in the post 2 hours after the case was heard, as it was only posted the day before, (kept envelope as proof).
Can any tell me if the claimants letter is admissable in evidence as we didn't have a copy so couldn't refute the contents.
Any help with this would be much appreciated.

[Amethyst]

Re: Court evidence rules

Has the Judge passed judgment in the case?

You can ask for it to be set aside because you weren't notified and you had reasonable evidence that the company had ceased trading (assuming you did) so would have refuted that allegation.

[Geoff]

Re: Court evidence rules

Yes tried to have it set aside but again the claimant sent another letter, contents unknown! and the application was dismissed. The problem is that the receipt that the claimant had for his purchase didn't had the limited company logo on it. Judge then decided that the individual was responsible, not the limited company. I think he did accept that the limited company had ceased trading and is trying to make us responsible personally. We are wanting to appeal decision now but need clarification about the undisclosed letters, I feel we should of had a copy.

[Amethyst]

Re: Court evidence rules

Without knowing all the circumstances its difficult to know. Was there a hearing for the set aside application ? Who is the judgment against ? The company or an individual (director of the company?) How much is the claim for ?

Other than the company going under was there another defence to the claim bought ?

[Geoff]

Re: Court evidence rules

Its probably just a question of case law, can either party enter a letter/evidence into court without the other party having a copy? We know the letter, to put it mildly, was full of untruths and obviously influenced the Judge, this seems wrong and a long way from a level playing field.
To detail the whole case would take several hours, I am now appealing to the circuit Judge. The claim incidentally never mentioed the Ltd company name or an individual. The worry is that we worked from home and the judgement has our address on. We have already had contact from the baliffs trying to come but we stopped them by applying to the circuit Judge. The claim is for £5000