Small claims court - general advice please

firmaten

@nosferatu1001

They've offered to send me one, though I'm now in reciept of the original hard copy having had to go and collect it.

Thanks for the advice on message to be sent to the court. I sent an email to the court earlier on today advising that the claimant has failed to follow court directions and not sent WS and liased on bundle. I will follow that up with the further reasoning with what has subsequntly been found out.

nosferatu1001

The order I used is helpful because it shows the corut that the claimant knew for - how long? - that you had moved, and still messed up. 

firmaten

They knew for more than 2 months

nosferatu1001

Show us the draft of what you will now send the court
You want this to be as concise and punchy as possible
Remember you mustr also file this on the claimant. 

firmaten

@nosferatu1001

Please see below:

"For the attention of the presiding Judge. Further to my previous email, please see below:

- on XX/XX/2020 I advised the claimant of my new current address for service, namely XXXX. This was acknowledged by them on the xxxxx.

- on XX/12/2020, some 66 days after this, the claimant sent their Witness Statement and documents to XXXX

- on 03/03/2021 date I emailed XXXXX asking when/where the WS had been sent since I had not received it. The claimant’s rep XXXX claimed that the Witness Statement was sent to  XXXXX.

- While I was awaiting a response to the above from XXXX I contacted my old/previous address XXXX and it turns out the WS had been sent there. It would appear that the claimant has attempted to mislead me in believing the WS was served correctly and sent to the new address.

- The claimant is therefore in breach of the order of XX/XX/2020 by Judge XXX as they did not serve their WS on me and file with the court. As the defendant I have been prejudiced as now have little time to prepare. As a serial litigant, they have no reasonable excuse for this breach.

- As the claimant has not applied for relief from sanction, and combined with their deliberate attempt to mislead the defendant I ask that the court strikes out the claimants witness statement entirely. As this leaves the claimant unable to prove their claim I ask that the court dismisses the claim entirely as having no prospect of success, and awards me costs for the claimants unreasonable behaviour as per your costs assessment and to prevent further waste of the courts valuable time."

nosferatu1001

obvious change needed - final "your"! as per the attached would make sense
The last line is clunky so I would sugggest revising> i added too much

firmaten

Thank you @nosferatu1001 I will update.

With respect to costs I was merely going to restate what I sent along with my WS:

"Further costs for Claimant’s misconduct, pursuant to Civil Procedure Rule 44.11
Research, preparation and drafting documents (16 hours at Litigant in Person rate of £19 per hour): £304."

Finally, I just intend to email the above and copy in the claimant as well.

nosferatu1001

I always prefer breaking down into smaller amounts by each area, with a final total/. Makes it look a lot more believable and invites small reducitons as opposed to "that single figure is too high, it is all gone"

nosferatu1001

Email subject should have the claim ref, so they can put it on the file

firmaten

Thanks - I've emailed the court/claimantnow.