Can defendant in Small-Claims court charge for ''time spent preparing for trial''??

October868

Hello the background story to my current claim is stated in this thread-
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6041851/defendant-filed-a-counter-claim-but-no-order-was-made-by-the-court-that-i-had-to-file-a-defence


To post a short summary though-
I placed an order of some custom-videos from an individual last year, stating during a few online conversations that if this 1st batch went well I then would be looking to place orders for dozens more from them over the future months & years... ect

They were paid over £3,000 by me, produced videos upto the value of £1,500 but then said they had spent the rest of the money (1/2 of which was designated as wages to pay their co-performer).
I asked them to repay me that 1/2 of the remaining money, but they ignored my emails and then blocked me, thus making it clear that they were not willing to communicate with me anymore/or produce any work for me anymore.

I have taken the matter to the small-claims court now to try recovering all my money.
They however have been indirectly blackmailing me now though (by making multiple statements to people whom I associate with that they think I'm a !!!!!phile... ect), which ofcourse is extremely damaging & distressing for my life.
They have also made a counterclaim against me, stating that ''If I had chosen to place dozens of future orders with them over the future months/years they would of earned £xxx thousands of pounds from those orders, but so they are now claiming that sum of money which they would've made if I had placed future orders''.


To try just getting the matter closed, due to the amount of stress it's causing onto me, I have made them a pre-trial settlement offer of a mutual-withdrawal of claims.
However they (or rather their Mckenzie friend) has responded back saying they would only accept that offer if I pay them compensation, including money towards the costs which they have incurred (and say they will add on at court) of 'time spent preparing for the trial'.

The claim is being dealt with via the Small-claims track, and as far as I was aware the only costs you can charge the other party are the fixed-costs (so court application costs).

But I have very little legal-knowledge, and so is it true that if they somehow won the case they could also charge me money for ''time spent preparing for the claim such as writing witness statements, which they claim is preventing them from working and thus losing income''?
Also are they allowed to charge me for the cost of whatever they are paying their McKenzie friend?


Thankyou inadvance

waamo

Why start a new thread for every question? This would be better asked in your original thread rather than people flicking between threads to see the background.

To answer the question though they can ask but are unlikely to get expenses.

October868

Hello I didn't post in that thread as to find this question people would need to wade through the 100+ previous posts, which were in relation to the previous question.

But ok thankyou very much for your answer.
The defendant works self-employed, doing various things. Her main income in from webcam, but she also does some other similar work too.
But so from the response to my pre-trial settlement offer she is making it sound like she is going to claim she has spent dozens of hours preparing all the documents for the trial, and that because she would of earned £xxx per hour if she had been working rather than doing that prep, she will add the sum of multiple hundreds/thousands more to the claim.

She also has a McKenzie friend who acts as 'her agent', handles all her communication with me, and assists her with preparing all her documents for the court.
But so she is also going to state that his hourly rate is £xx, multiply that by the number of hours she claims she spent preparing for the trial, and then add that onto the sum too!

However I had no idea that you can add on all these additional charges in the small-claims court... :S

waamo

Like I said you can ask but the odds of them being awarded are slim. Generally costs are only awarded in the event of one sides behaviour being unreasonable.

hollydays

So how do you know this?
Are you still communicating and why?

October868

waamo wrote: »

Like I said you can ask but the odds of them being awarded are slim. Generally costs are only awarded in the event of one sides behaviour being unreasonable.

Ok that's great, thankyou.
I guess it was just their McKenzie friend trying to scare me into panicking that I would have to pay loads of additional costs.

As far as I'm aware I haven't behaved unreasonably in any way, as all my communication with the defendant (via their McKenzie friend) has been polite & professional in nature.

October868

hollydays wrote: »

So how do you know this?
Are you still communicating and why?

I know it because I just recieved their response to my pre-trial settlement offer (sent by her McKenzie friend), in which they have stated that the defendant has incurred additional 'loss of income' costs due to the claim/having to spend time peparing her court documents... ect

They have also said-
If you cannot agree a figure and commit to payment thereof, then preparation for trial must continue - which, of course, will cause an escalation of the expense. There are witness statements to be prepared and finalised.


And my reason for communicating with them currently is because the judge (at the previous hearing) recommended that we try to reach a pre-trial settlement if possible.
Therefore in accordance with that, and to try getting the matter closed, I communicated with them to make a pre-trial settlement offer.

born_again

Sounds like they are trying to scare you off. But why not contact the service and ask them.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/taking-legal-action/small-claims/going-to-a-small-claims-hearing

Getting the court’s decision
The judge will give their decision or ‘judgment’ at the end of the hearing and briefly explain the reasons. If the case is decided without a hearing or one side doesn’t attend, the court will send a copy of the judge’s reasons to each side.

If you win, the judge will order the defendant to pay you. You could get:

some or all of what you claimed
interest from the date of the court order until the defendant pays you if the judge awards you more than £5,000
expenses like court fees, reasonable travel expenses and up to £95 in lost wages for you or your witnesses
up to £750 if you had to pay for an expert
any fixed costs you put on the claim form
the costs of legal advice and preparing the case up to £260 if you got an order that the defendant must do something - like carry out repairs
If you lose you might have to pay the defendant’s costs - like travel and lost wages.

hollydays

Mackenzie friends don't need to abide by rules or have any qualifications.do they claim to belong to any association?

October868

Hello and thankyou.

I did read that info, but my understanding of it was simply that if for example I work a Monday-Friday job for an employer, however had to take a day off work because the court-hearing date was on a weekday, I then could claim £95 for loss of income on that day (the trial day).

However the defendant/her McKenzie friend is directly implying that because she is self-employed, if this case didn't exist she would apparently be earning money during the hours which she has instead had to spend writing her witness-statements... ect,
and so is going to charge me for all the income which she is alledgely missing-out on right now during this duration of 'preparing for the trial', in addition to the trial day.

And presumably do the same for all her friends who she has gotten to write witness statements too.

And also for the costs which she is apparently paying her McKenzie friend for his time in helping her prepare her files for the court.

October868

hollydays wrote: »

Mackenzie friends don't need to abide by rules or have any qualifications.do they claim to belong to any association?

All I know is that they are trained solicitior, but in conveyancing law, however they state in their 'title' that they are 'non-practising'.