Small Claims Hearing due later in May, letter received - help please with next steps

Bellebelle42

Good afternoon, 
I have been fighting with BW Legal for nearly two years now over a parking fine. My previous thread and your kind advice can be found here - 
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5951427/letter-of-claim-bw-legal-for-britannia-parking-pcn#latest
As an update, we have finally got to the stage where a court hearing was in place, and all witness statements, etc have been submitted. This week I received a letter outlining the next steps and the fact that a hearing would no longer take place due to the COVID 19 situation. This is all straightforward and makes sense, however, the letter states that both the claimant (BW Legal) and defendant (myself) now have to agree on the bundle of documents that will be presented instead of the hearing. How do we go about this? Do I need to speak to BW Legal, or are the bundles already submitted sufficient?

I would appreciate any help!

Thank you

L

Ralph-y

have a look at this thread/discussion

Anticipate a Telephone Hearing

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6130456/telephone-hearings-re-parking-firm-claims-can-we-all-discuss-strategy-and-outcomes-here#latest

Ralph

nosferatu1001

You must post in your EXISTING thread
If it states you and BW must *agree*, then obviously you must talk with them, otherwise there is no *agreement*
AS you would expect, do this in writing - email or post - so IF they do not converse with you, you have a paper trail to tell the court that BW legal have breached the order. 

Le_Kirk

Also, as your original thread is still open, you should keep everything on there.

Johnersh

It's probably sensible to keep all your posts to a single thread if the link above is to the same case. 

1. Are you happy to argue this by phone (would it be easier deferring for a hearing in person later)? 

2. If the answer to 1 above is yes you are and that you don't want to wait, the correct way to go about this is

a.  first read the telephone hearing guide on the forum
b.  Second prepare an index of all the documents that should go in the bundle then ask them to agree it. 
c. Once agreed, it is for them to collate and paginate it into a single bundle for use by everyone. 
d. Remember CPR 39.8 all correspondence to the court needs to be copied to the other side. 

The pre-action correspondence should go in if you want to raise issues about inflated costs, threats, no win/no fee debt collection and the like.

The format of your index is the same headings as in your defence but then a list which will start off something like the below (this list is not even close to complete). Page numbers are the last thing you do, obviously! 

Item.     Document.   Page
1.           Index.                1
2.           Claim Form.      2
3.            Defence.           4.

Bellebelle42

Thank you everyone - that is very useful. I know how unresponsive BWLegal are, so I doubt they will be very forthcoming - an email trail will show I at least attempted to work with them. 
The letter suggests it will continue without a hearing, but here is a chance they will request a telephone hearing, so I shall keep you up to date. I will try and find out how to merge this with my original thread - apologies!

Redx

pm soolin or crabman and ask themn to merge the 2 threads

Coupon-mad

This week I received a letter outlining the next steps and the fact that a hearing would no longer take place due to the COVID 19 situation. This is all straightforward and makes sense, however, the letter states that both the claimant (BW Legal) and defendant (myself) now have to agree on the bundle of documents that will be presented instead of the hearing. How do we go about this?

This is fully covered in the TELEPHONE HEARINGS thread, where it shows you exactly what to send and warns you that some Courts won't have access to your defence/the court file. P10 of that thread shows which courts are doing what, and examples of how to word the covering email and Draft Order.