Won at small claims defendant issues additional claim

Mumoftwoboys36

Hi,
Can I get advice. I’ve recently been to small claims court for non payment of invoice and had the judgment in my favour. Money for invoice to be paid. The Defence was substandard workmanship that wasn’t upheld. No counterclaim was made at the time despite the defence stating there would be as apparently replacement/remedial work had been carried out costing more than original invoice. There was no evidence for this and those claims were false.

Since the judgement (14 day for payment) I have had a notice for pre court action from the defendant seeking a much bigger figure of compensation in relation to damages caused by defective workmanship, costs of remedial work (unsubstantiated) etc

Is this allowed given that this judgment has been made and no counter claim was presented at the time?

Any advice gratefully received.

Circumstances were subcontractor providing labour, snagging completed no payment and no with holding notice issued until pre court directive issued (some 5 weeks later)

No counter claim sought at court during the defence

Is a new claim relating to the same issue that had judgment allowed?

da_rule

Yes it is allowed. The Court would rather it be dealt with by means of a counterclaim but this isn’t always possible (i.e. not all of the evidence is available at the time etc).

Has your order been paid? If not, how much is it for?

If he is trying to run a claim based on the defence that he raised, which was rejected, then he may be on a hiding to nothing. Just make sure you file a robust defence. You may also want to consider making an application to strike out or for summary judgment.

Mumoftwoboys36

Basically defendant lost their t in court and walked out. Judge continued with evidence but ruled in our favour as no evidence of what the defendant was claiming in his pack.

Our order has not been paid and it for £1600. Defendant now claiming for £4250.

When you say strike out for summary judgment, what does this mean?

Or

Mumoftwoboys36

Also all evidence was available at the time. The defendant has no evidence and is basically lying To avoid payment

Aquamania

Mumoftwoboys36 wrote: »

Hi,
Can I get advice. I’ve recently been to small claims court for non payment of invoice and had the judgment in my favour. Money for invoice to be paid. The Defence was substandard workmanship that wasn’t upheld. No counterclaim was made at the time despite the defence stating there would be as apparently replacement/remedial work had been carried out costing more than original invoice. There was no evidence for this and those claims were false.

Since the judgement (14 day for payment) I have had a notice for pre court action from the defendant seeking a much bigger figure of compensation in relation to damages caused by defective workmanship, costs of remedial work (unsubstantiated) etc

Is this allowed given that this judgment has been made and no counter claim was presented at the time?

Any advice gratefully received.

Circumstances were subcontractor providing labour, snagging completed no payment and no with holding notice issued until pre court directive issued (some 5 weeks later)

No counter claim sought at court during the defence

Is a new claim relating to the same issue that had judgment allowed?

Mumoftwoboys36 wrote: »

Basically defendant lost their t in court and walked out. Judge continued with evidence but ruled in our favour as no evidence of what the defendant was claiming in his pack.

Our order has not been paid and it for £1600. Defendant now claiming for £4250.

When you say strike out for summary judgment, what does this mean?

Or

Mumoftwoboys36 wrote: »

Also all evidence was available at the time. The defendant has no evidence and is basically lying To avoid payment

This would appear to be a classic example of where one should seek their own independent legal advice, rather than seek the views of anonymous users on the internet.

Anyone can start a claim against anyone else in this country.

You've done it and been to court to see how the process works.

Whilst the responsibility is on the claimant to prove the case, if you wish to put forward a defence based on "The defendant has no evidence and is basically lying To avoid payment", then simply provide evidence to the court to support that defence.

If, as you say, you have won a CCJ against the now claimant in an earlier case, then that has to be settled irrespective of the outcome of this later claim.

I would urge you to avoid the accusation that the claimant is lying. Courts do not like that term being used. In a sense, in almost every case heard in court someone could be said to be lying and that is for the judge to decide. In fact it is usually simply little more than 2 (or sometimes more) parties expressing a difference of opinion.

Lying could imply that the one party is committing perjury, and that would have very serious consequences for the guilty party if proven against them. Such a matter will be held in another place and the court would expect a defendant to be fully represented in such a serious matter. But a conviction cannot be obtained solely on the evidence of a single witness as to the falsity of any statement.

waamo

I assume from your description you have had a Letter Before Claim rather than a full blown claim.

I would respond stating the facts of the case have already been determined so there is no case to answer. This is clearly a retaliatory claim and wholly without merit. Tell him you will invite the court to strike out the claim prior to a hearing as it has absolutely no prospect of success and will ask the court to award full costs to you due to his unreasonable behaviour.

If he does issue a claim you can indeed ask the court to dismiss it without a hearing. There is a very strong probability they will unless he comes up with new evidence.

KittyHawk

Very good advice from Aquamania and waamo: be sure to heed it. I'd use exactly waamo's language - 'retaliatory claim/wholly without merit/no prospect of success' - in your response. Don't include even the merest hint of 'he's a lying sack of ####'; it'll go down like a bucket of the same. Cold.

Mumoftwoboys36

Ok, advice taken,

we will get Legal advice but it’s very costly and I’m very much small dog against a big dog. So wanted to gain an understanding of those that are more knowledgeable.

I honestly cannot imagine what new evidence the company might have and how the a figure can be completely different to those that were originally filed.

NutWorld

waamo wrote: »

I assume from your description you have had a Letter Before Claim rather than a full blown claim.

I would respond stating the facts of the case have already been determined so there is no case to answer. This is clearly a retaliatory claim and wholly without merit. Tell him you will invite the court to strike out the claim prior to a hearing as it has absolutely no prospect of success and will ask the court to award full costs to you due to his unreasonable behaviour.

If he does issue a claim you can indeed ask the court to dismiss it without a hearing. There is a very strong probability they will unless he comes up with new evidence.

Costs are not normally awarded in any small claim save for the court costs involved in bringing the claim in the first instance; costs that are paid upfront by the complainant, and only generally awarded against the defendant if the complainant wins. In all cases award of these costs is at the discretion of the court, although the complainant will have added these to the claim when filing - that should be clear from the claim itself when received.

Mumoftwoboys36

We have instructed a solicitor to respond to the pre court letter.

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waamo

NutWorld wrote: »

Costs are not normally awarded in any small claim save for the court costs involved in bringing the claim in the first instance; costs that are paid upfront by the complainant, and only generally awarded against the defendant if the complainant wins. In all cases award of these costs is at the discretion of the court, although the complainant will have added these to the claim when filing - that should be clear from the claim itself when received.

Costs can (sometimes) be awarded if one of the parties has acted unreasonably. It's rare but it does happen.

I would suggest this is straying well into the unreasonable behaviour category. If the person did launch a claim I would certainly attempt to recoup some costs on that basis.