Small claims

Superblackbird

I am considering starting a claim against a garage. My main concern is if the garage appointed a lawyer and I lost, would I be liable for the Lawyer's fees?

InsideInsurance

There isnt really a "small claims court".

A case is judged on its size and complexity and is assigned to a track within the legal system. Depending on what track the case is then this dictates generally what can and cannot be claimed for in terms of expert reports, legal representation etc.

The limit for non-injury in Small Track is now 10,000 though there can be complexity reasons that pushes the case up into Fast Track generally the courts will want to keep cases in as low a track as possible.

If it does fall into Small Track (aka small claims court) then solicitors fees are typically excluded from being claimed from the losing party. A judge does have the authority to over rule this but would only do so if there was significant irregularities - eg you created a totally fictitious claim for the sole purpose of being malicious to the other party

So in short, they almost certainly cannot claim their lawyers fees even if they win unless you are making a totally bogus claim

arcon5

The garage are unlikely to instruct a lawyer, as generally, no they will not be awarded legal costs if they won (assuming the claim is under £10k and straight forward as I suspect it would be). There is however the possibility they award the other party travel costs if you loose.

What is the specifics of your claim? What evidence do you have? And how have you tried to resolve it?