CEL taking my wife to court

Redx

Embellish whatever you like, as long as the correct person is doing it (witness one is the defendant)

The WS is not the only item , there are exhibits (evidence) plus item 3, the costs schedule as well

This bundle should be hand delivered to the local court, plus emailed to the claimant as well

Read post #2 of the Newbies thread again, plus read recently completed court cases, using the search words from a well known queen song AOBTD

And change your name to last-minute Joe

BrownTrout

Why do people leave these things so late

simonsmart111

Thank you, exhibits are coming together.

Re the schedule of costs, is this for costs incurred so far (my time, postage costs etc), without factoring in costs that WILL be incurred (parking, fuel, loss of earnings etc), or should I be predicting what these costs would be?

If I am speaking on behalf of my wife, am I entitled to claim a day of lost earnings also? And finally, if my wife doesn't work on a Friday, we would not be able to claim, right?

Thank you, Last-minute-Joe

simonsmart111

Further to my previous post, I've written up a 'Schedule of Costs'. Pasted below, hopefully it's all correct, I have not claimed loss of earnings for the defendant, as she does not work on the court date.:

Schedule of costs
Loss of earnings for X X, incurred through attendance at court on xx/xx/2019 as a lay-rep. £80.00
Return mileage from home address to court, 26 miles, £11.70
Parking near Court £3.00

Research and preparation of defence @ £19 per hour for 8 hours. £152.00

Printing of 3 copies of witness statement and postage costs: £15.00

Sub-Total: £261.70

£261.70 TOTAL COSTS CLAIMED

nosferatu1001

No, you cannot claim those last items, starting £19 per hour, unless you can show the claimant has behaved unreasonably. This is in every single thread on the topic. So to make it clear you should have a section for ordinary costs, and a section for unreasonable, so it is clear (pursuant to CPR27.14(2)(g)...)

You can claim at most £95 for a half days loss of leave or pay for the defendant. You *may* get them to allow Lay rep costs but thats far from certain.

The_Deep

No, you cannot claim those last items, starting (sic) £19 per hour, unless you can show the claimant has behaved unreasonably.

I was under the impression that stationery, postage, and photocopying were all claimable if one won.

OP, claim for everything and put up a good argument when the judge rejects them (as he/she is very likely to). Many Judges seem to think that it is perfectly acceptable for PPCs to waste people' time suchly and get away with it.

nosferatu1001

Thats not my understanding at all. Just time, mileage and parking. No stationary costs.

simonsmart111

It's our court date today!

I've phoned the court to check if CEL have withdrawn their claim (as historically they often do), but they haven't.

We're going prepped with copies of CEL's defence/WS, our defence and our WS.

Any final tips or advice? The hearing is this afternoon, and the man I spoke to from the court said to get there 15-30 minutes before (we'll aim for 1 hour before though) the scheduled time of the hearing.

I'm guessing the key points to expand on with the court would be:
1) Poor signage
2) Exceptional circumstances (emergency mechanical issue requiring an immediate stop)
3) We were only on site for 19 minutes, and at no point was the car left unattended.

Thank you!

beamerguy

Good luck.

If you have already told CEL about the problem and they ignored you, the judge may well view this as wasting the courts time

nosferatu1001

Indeed, point out the frustration - never say mitigation! - of the emergency situation

Ask for your costs including unreasonable behaviour, especially if they fail to turn up AND as they havent told you OR THE COURT theyre not going to turn up thats fairly unreaosnable!