Defendant is saying my claim is vexatious

ConfusedClaimant

Hi all,

I'm bringing a small claims court claim against a professional association I was part of, for gender-based discrimination. Yesterday I received the defendant's defence, which leads off with an assertion that my claim is vexatious. I don't believe it to be so, but my question is, can/should I respond to the court and defendant now, and state why I don't believe my claim to be vexatious, or should I wait until I'm asked to respond? I'm obviously worried that my claim could be thrown out if I allow their reasoning to go unchallenged, depriving me of the chance to tell my side of the story at the hearing.

Many thanks for any advice/input.

nicechap

How would anyone on the internet know whether your claim is vexatious or not?

What does your lawyer advise?

sangie595

ConfusedClaimant wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm bringing a small claims court claim against a professional association I was part of, for gender-based discrimination. Yesterday I received the defendant's defence, which leads off with an assertion that my claim is vexatious. I don't believe it to be so, but my question is, can/should I respond to the court and defendant now, and state why I don't believe my claim to be vexatious, or should I wait until I'm asked to respond? I'm obviously worried that my claim could be thrown out if I allow their reasoning to go unchallenged, depriving me of the chance to tell my side of the story at the hearing.

Many thanks for any advice/input.

You've accused them of something very serious, but they shouldn't be allowed to say anything serious about you? Regardless of what the case is about, the point of court cases is that the two sides don't agree. They are, it would appear, lining up a defence that involves suing you for costs for a vexatious claim - something that, outside of employment tribunals, is very likely to happen if the court agrees with them. Your side will be heard at the appropriate time. But you are aware of the risk of costs being high - and that lawyers cost a lot and you may be saddled with a bill for £thousands?

ConfusedClaimant

Thanks for replying. My question is procedural - can/should I respond now? Or will I be notified by the court when/if there's an opportunity to make my response to their assertion that my claim is vexatious? Obviously I don't expect anyone online to assess the actual validity of my claim.

My question is really "will the court decide whether or not my claim is vexatious before or during the hearing."

Crazy_Jamie

sangie595 wrote: »

You've accused them of something very serious, but they shouldn't be allowed to say anything serious about you? Regardless of what the case is about, the point of court cases is that the two sides don't agree. They are, it would appear, lining up a defence that involves suing you for costs for a vexatious claim - something that, outside of employment tribunals, is very likely to happen if the court agrees with them. Your side will be heard at the appropriate time. But you are aware of the risk of costs being high - and that lawyers cost a lot and you may be saddled with a bill for £thousands?

Just to clarify this, but by default the Defendant has no right to recover costs if successful on the small claims track. In order to recover costs for successfully defending the claim, the Defendant would likely have to establish that the OP has behaved unreasonably in accordance with CPR r.27.14(2)(g) (click). Whilst I entirely agree that that would be likely (if not inevitable) is the Court did accept that the claim was vexatious, how likely that is to happen (as opposed to the OP simply losing) will depend on the specifics of the case. If the OP simply goes to court and loses with no additional adverse findings as to their conduct, there won't be any additional amounts to pay (though they will of course lose what they have already paid, such as court fees).

In terms of answering the original post, the case will not simply be thrown out without some sort of hearing, generally either a trial or the hearing of a specific application if the Defendant makes one. You can file a Reply to Defence if you feel so inclined, but that is generally to respond to discrete matters that have been raised in the Defence, and not simply to refute an allegation that your claim is vexatious. You'll get to do that in your witness statement and by relying on other evidence in support of your claim. The Court will send out directions telling you when to provide all of that, so you shouldn't feel the need to do anything proactively at this point.

pinkshoes

ConfusedClaimant wrote: »

Thanks for replying. My question is procedural - can/should I respond now? Or will I be notified by the court when/if there's an opportunity to make my response to their assertion that my claim is vexatious? Obviously I don't expect anyone online to assess the actual validity of my claim.

My question is really "will the court decide whether or not my claim is vexatious before or during the hearing."

I had to look up the meaning of vexatious!!

So they are stating that you are just making this claim to annoy them without sufficient grounds to make a claim?

Do you have evidence? Written/photographic evidence? Something that would actually stand up in court to prove your case?

tacpot12

The other party's defence Is shared so that you can see what they are going to say in court and to consider whether it is a valid defence and allow time for you to withdraw your claim.

If you are not going to withdraw your claim, having seen their defence, the court will decide on the rights and wrongs of the case.

You need to address each point of their defence in court; if you have any further information you want to send to the other party (before you go to court) as to why your claim is not vexatious, I think you should do this to ensure they have the chance to settle out of court. If it is just your opinion that the claim is not vexatious, you need to save that for the court; but address the accusation immediately in court.

ConfusedClaimant

Crazy_Jamie wrote: »

In terms of answering the original post, the case will not simply be thrown out without some sort of hearing, generally either a trial or the hearing of a specific application if the Defendant makes one. You can file a Reply to Defence if you feel so inclined, but that is generally to respond to discrete matters that have been raised in the Defence, and not simply to refute an allegation that your claim is vexatious. You'll get to do that in your witness statement and by relying on other evidence in support of your claim. The Court will send out directions telling you when to provide all of that, so you shouldn't feel the need to do anything proactively at this point.

Thank you so much for this!

ConfusedClaimant

pinkshoes wrote: »

I had to look up the meaning of vexatious!!

So they are stating that you are just making this claim to annoy them without sufficient grounds to make a claim?

Do you have evidence? Written/photographic evidence? Something that would actually stand up in court to prove your case?

They're stating that my claim is vexatious because I am no longer a member of the professional association (although the alleged discrimination took place while I was still a member). I have ample evidence - letters, emails, social media postings etc - which I believe makes for a strong case. I'm sure everyone thinks that, though! They've also made a number of factual errors in their account which all make me look bad, but I can refute all of them with the above evidence.

ConfusedClaimant

tacpot12 wrote: »

The other party's defence Is shared so that you can see what they are going to say in court and to consider whether it is a valid defence and allow time for you to withdraw your claim.

If you are not going to withdraw your claim, having seen their defence, the court will decide on the rights and wrongs of the case.

You need to address each point of their defence in court; if you have any further information you want to send to the other party (before you go to court) as to why your claim is not vexatious, I think you should do this to ensure they have the chance to settle out of court. If it is just your opinion that the claim is not vexatious, you need to save that for the court; but address the accusation immediately in court.

Thank you for this - it's extremely helpful. I feel like all of their points can be refuted and it would be in their interests to settle, so I need to give this careful consideration.

TELLIT01

Tacpot12's response sounds reasonable, but I'd be inclined to contact the court to see if you do need to respond to the counter claim at this time or if you should wait until it hits the court.