Received County Court Claims form

JasonHar1 · 9 April 2021 at 9:54PM

Maybe but if they did they didn't CC me. I'll assume they did, they seem determined to see this through.

SayNoToPCN · 9 April 2021 at 11:04PM

And? You can beat them. You're just going to cost them even more money to do so.

You could of course explicitly ask them if they've filed the bundle, and if so what, given you have not agreed that they can exceed the courts ordered Limit by more than 230 percent. You will ask the court to sanction the claimant for their failure to stick to the limit, and that their prolix witness statement could have been reduced, if they were not so reliant on a copy and paste template seen in dozens of cases.

JasonHar1 · 12 April 2021 at 12:03PM

I have queried whether they have filed the evidence bundle (the deadline was on Friday) and received a message in return which states:

'please note that our Client's Witness Statement has been filed at court for which our Client does not need your consent.

In relation to the compliance issue which you have raised with Court, this is for the Judge to decide upon.

Please further note that I have not filed a trial bundle at court yet, and if we are unable to agree to the contents of a trial bundle, the Court will be updated accordingly.'

Not sure there's much point in replying.

SayNoToPCN · 12 April 2021 at 12:13PM

Point out that you do not agree to tehe inclusion of their clients Witness Statement because it is in blatant breach of the courts order, for which you are in full compliance
Maybe if they had taken the time to produce real particulars of claim, instead of trying to advance their entire argument by way of a non-compliant witness statement, or by not relying on a templated witness statement seen in dozens of cases (DOUBLE CHECK THIS, YOUR JOB TO DO SO!!!!!), this issue could have been avoided

Have you emailed the court your objection? Maybe point out the legally represented claimant appears to not understand the difference between 6 sides and 6 pages, but by either measure they are in breach of the courts order of X date made by Y Judge, and you ask that the court sanctions the claimant appropriately, as they have not applied for relief from sanction.

JasonHar1 · 12 April 2021 at 12:30PM

On Friday, after I objected to BWL, they appealed to the Court to allow their WS. I objected, pretty much as you've suggested and asked for a sanction.

The Court has not yet responded. So, as things stand the bundle has not been agreed or submitted.

JasonHar1 · 12 April 2021 at 1:09PM

Seems little point in continuing to object to the bundle when they have written to the court, attempting to justify their WS and I have written asking the court to apply sanctions.

The actual WSs were submitted a week earlier, so are with the court already. Continuing to block the bundle now, when the court has been asked to decide the issue with the WS, doesn't make a lot of sense. Might as well get the bundle submitted and allow the court to decide on the statement.

I don't wish to be seen to be obstructive, when I have already raised my objection.

SayNoToPCN · 12 April 2021 at 2:10PM

The issue is you are to agree or not the contents of the bundle
You can object to the inclusion of the prolix WS but still say they can submit in the interests of the overriding objective but that you require them to note your objection and why on the cover.

JasonHar1 · 15 April 2021 at 4:31PM

I offered to consent to the submission of the evidence bundle with a comment on the cover detailing my objection to the WS. They normally reply quite promptly but still hadn't replied to my email. So I sent another email today, repeating the offer and CC'd it to the court. No reply as yet.

They did telephone yesterday to offer a 20% discount if I wished to settle, valid until the 30/04. That's the 2nd time they've offered that. I suspect it's standard OP for them and probably a different dept than the one I'm emailing about the evidence bundle.