Resolved matter

LittleElf16

Resolved matter

ontheroad1970

I am not a lawyer but I think the recording should not be accepted in a court.  

LittleElf16

No it definitely shouldn’t but more so are they allowed to do that? Is my repairing garage allowed to disclose information also?

Alanp

Afaik, you can only commit perjury under oath in court, sounds like he’s using bully boy tactics to try and intimidate everyone..

dogshome

With no back story as to the car, what was wrong with it and the dates, it's difficult to advise

But the selling dealers actions scream that they are desperate for it not to go to court

tacpot12

There is no UK law against recording a phone call without the other party's permission, and the judge can decide if they will allow it to be heard, but the based on your account, if it is heard in court it is likely to show the Defendant in a very bad light. The judge is most likely to want the recording to be presented in the form of a transcript which the Defendant will have to pay for, and should submit this to you and the court ahead of the hearing.

if the defendant thinks that the engineers report is lying, it is up to them to prove it - the relevant law requires the dealer to provide that the car was NOT faulty in the way you and your engineer say it was. The court will tend to believe your engineer, unless they are presented with hard evidence that the engineer has lied. I can think of no reason when an independent engineer would lie on your behalf, when they would get paid the same amount if they didn't lie. 

You can ask your repairing garage to submit information to you if you think it will help your claim, and you can ask for it to be included in the case, if you provide copies to the court and the defendant ahead of the hearing.  However, I think the case will be judged on the facts of whether the car was faulty when it was sold to you and the nature of the faults, and less so on how the dealer has tried to intimidate witnesses, although I would expect the judge to take a dim view of such practices and penalise the defendant if the opportunity arises. 

If you have said something to the repairing garage whereby you have admitted that the circumstances in which the fault was discovered were not as you have told the court, the dealer is entitled to put the facts that they have discovered to the court as part of their defence, but again it would have to come in the form of a witness statement from the garage and should be shared with you prior to the hearing so that you can challenge it.

You should be familiar with this by now: Disclosure of documents (justice.gov.uk)
The caveat regarding small claims cases only applies to the requirement to send a complete list of the documents to the other party, in all other respects the contents of the page applies to small claims cases. It is better to have a list though, just so you can know what documents you are using. It is good practice to take three copies of every document in your bundle in the hearing with you, in case the judge or defendant have lost their copy. 

Good luck with your case. It would be great to hear how you got on.   

LittleElf16

The court hearing is tomorrow.  Nothing has been submitted to me in regards to evidence apart from one witness statement from the Defendant. 

I am going to make the Judge aware of an incident that has happened after I have submitted my evidence,   I have not said anything to the repairing garage. 

Is the repairing garage allowed to disclose information about one of its customers and customers vehicles to someone else? Apparently the Defendant has told my engineer that he is ‘friends’ with my repairing garage and they send him a lot of work, obviously if I knew this before I would never have used said repairing garage. 

Car_54

If the defendant's intention was to influence the witness, then he has committed an imprisonable offence, and should be reported to the police.

LittleElf16

Even with it being a civil matter? The engineer isn’t appearing in Court on his report is being submitted but is willing to attend court if the Judge wants him to. 

JamoLew

The actual recording may not be allowed (as already stated) but a transcript of the conversation may very well be allowed

LittleElf16

The hearing is tomorrow! I haven’t received a transcript of any conversation and even if I did, the engineer said he felt extremely uncomfortable with the conversation and didn't say anything anyway because he isn’t lying about anything! 

What I’m concerned about is the Defendants behaviour of contacting my independent engineer and my repairing garage after I have submitted my evidence.