Small Claims Procedure advice

Stebbij

Hi,

I am currently pursuing a small claims procedure against a company. The evidentiary hearing is to be heard on the 3rd December. There have already been 2 procedural hearings so I was looking forward to this being the final hearing.

However the defendant's solicitor has just written to me advising that they have resigned from acting for the defender in my case.

Can anyone advise me on what is likely to be the outcome of this? Is the judge likely to allow the defender to postpone the case to a later date? It relates to a sum of money I paid the defender as a deposit for an item that was never delivered and installed, so they have now had my money for over a year.

Thanks.

browneyedbazzi

It's likely to depend on the complexity of the case and whether or not the position of the defender will be badly affected by the change/lack of representation. As the 3rd December is still over a week away and small claims should be fairly straight forward I'd think the defender has enough time to sort out new representation if he wants to (assuming it is going small claims track and not a more complex case that's been allocated to fast track).

ValHaller

Look at the reasons they might resign

• They have caught their client out in a lie which will lose him the case - they will not represent anything they know to be a lie, so they must resign for their client's sake
• They have caught wind of the client not being able to pay

To me, it looks like you will win in court, possibly by default, but you are unlikely to actually see your money.

Stebbij

ValHaller wrote: »

Look at the reasons they might resign

• They have caught their client out in a lie which will lose him the case - they will not represent anything they know to be a lie, so they must resign for their client's sake
• They have caught wind of the client not being able to pay

To me, it looks like you will win in court, possibly by default, but you are unlikely to actually see your money.

Thanks. It is a small claims procedure, and I have submitted evidence to the court proving both the above points :rotfl:

While I know the chances of seeing my money are slim I am not going to let a company get away with taking my money and not supplying goods and service.

Scrootum

It the company has no money, it is a pointless exercise.

Stebbij

Scrootum wrote: »

It the company has no money, it is a pointless exercise.

If we all just decide its pointless then rogue traders get away with theft.

My first step is to get a judgement against the company. Once I have this there are a number of things I can do - they just cost money, which is what stops most people from pursuing them.