Directions hearing - what to expect?

lilmissreading

Background (in case it helps):

Offer accepted on house Feb 2013. Complete June 2013. Replace roof October 13.

Move in full time in December 13. Find roof is substantially leaking which it was not to our knowledge prior to this. Roofer returns 3 times over 3 months and in the end, despite giving us a guarentee that it will not leak, 'gives up'. Subsequent communication by us to him ignored (text, call, email, post).

Hire new roofer in Feb 14. Roof fixed, no longer leaking.

Continue to try to contact original roofer and eventually make small claims court application in June 14.

Just been contacted by roofer's lawyer yesterday to ask if there is a possibility of mediation. Have advised her to ask him for a figure as our figure is the carefully worked out one on the paperwork.

Meanwhile we have completed and sent back our directions questionnaire. The lawyer does not have his and we have not seen a copy yet although it should have happened by now.

Current situation: We have a directions hearing on Monday 22nd September and just wondered what to expect from this?

Thanks for reading this

hollydays

What is " directions"?

tomtontom

A directions hearing is pretty much what it says, a meeting where the judge directs what needs to be done prior to the case being heard - for instance exchange of relevant documents. If their sol is suggesting mediation it sounds like the roofer knows he is in the wrong and you'll get some kind of offer prior to the hearing.

lilmissreading

We have a completed a comprehensive 'directions' questionnaire which sets out our rationale for the case. Sounds like we won't be needing to do too much on the day - just rock up?

Emailed solicitor to confirm a phone call and said see you at directions hearing. She emailed to say she thought it was a 'case conference meeting.' Not sure if this is the same before but we are going by the court paperwork. May just be a simple miscommunication in my email. Must re-read when less tired!

[Deleted User]

tomtontom wrote: »

A directions hearing is pretty much what it says, a meeting where the judge directs what needs to be done prior to the case being heard - for instance exchange of relevant documents. If their sol is suggesting mediation it sounds like the roofer knows he is in the wrong and you'll get some kind of offer prior to the hearing.

Not at all.

Court action should always be considered a matter of last resort. If you look at current suggested wording for an LBA, it will suggest including the opportunity/possibility to resolve the matter via mediation.

Even so, as long as it's before the hearing, it's never too late for either side to try to instigate mediation to avoid the matter getting to a court hearing.

A judge may look adversely on the case if either party is seen to not wish to participate in alternative attempts to resolve the matter without his involvement ... or even not attempt to attempt to resolve it out of court. (hence why the LBA is now recommeded to suggest such)

Of course. if it is left to the judge to decide, the judge will do so based on the law, but there are other factors (such as court costs, legal fees, expenses, etc) that the judge has ample opportunity to use his discretion on ... and to be honest, often makes up a sizeable final part of any claim.

The directions given may even state to attempt to resolve the matter before the hearing via mediation.

[Deleted User]

lilmissreading wrote: »

We have a completed a comprehensive 'directions' questionnaire which sets out our rationale for the case. Sounds like we won't be needing to do too much on the day - just rock up?

Emailed solicitor to confirm a phone call and said see you at directions hearing. She emailed to say she thought it was a 'case conference meeting.' Not sure if this is the same before but we are going by the court paperwork. May just be a simple miscommunication in my email. Must re-read when less tired!

If it's just a 'case conference meeting' that has been called, it probably means the judge is wondering !!!!!! this is even doing in court, and probably wishes to bang a few heads together, namely those of the legal advisors involved, to try and sort this out without him.

Based on your version of events (and I appreciate that it is only one side of the story) you say (putting it into my own words) the original roofer attempted to fix your roof and failed, giving it up as a bad job.

What were you expected to do other than get someone who was competent to finish the job properly? If we are to accept your version as being the whole truth and the other party are in full agreement, then the other party wouldn't appear to have a leg to stand on.

(I suspect the issue may be much more complicated, such as the defendent will argue the competent person charged an extortionate amount for the work required and/or that did more than the defendant was ever tasked with doing in the first instance. But without the other side's story, this is all speculation at this time, but something must differ as otherwise I can't see any form of defence and hence what it is doing in court.)

lilmissreading

We are certainly not opposed to mediation and have asked his lawyer to ask him for a figure. Sadly we attempted this ourselves back in January to June time but he refused to answer post, email or phone. Annoying it had to get this far.

Yes just our side and I imagine nearly a year of this farce has really caused us to become cross, fed up and more biased. Our perspective is that we hired him to replace the roof, he did. It leaked never having done so before and he had given us a leak proof guarantee. He was unable to fix it despite given numerous chances.

The letter we have from the court says 'directions hearing 22nd September' so we are going by that. The lawyer hasn't seen his directions questionnaire yet, nor have we.

Thanks for all the thoughts - it's helping to think things through more objectively