COURT WITNESS STATEMENTS

Meadows1

In the middle of going to the small claims court and I emailed my witness statement to the defendant's solicitor, it was due on the 23rd Feb before 4.pm, i sent it at 1.35pm. I received a receipted reply on her behalf as she was off that day, however she contacted me on the Monday to say the witness statements are not being accepted as we had not discussed receipt by email. She sent hers by next day mail, which I received on time. I just think she should have informed me as I am so worried about it being struck out of court. Does anyone know if the judge would be on my side, I think this is so unfair.

prettyandfluffy

I'm flagging your post to be moved to a more appropriate board where you should get the help you need,

Okell

I'm no expert but I thought that witness statements etc had to be served in hard copy (either by snail mail or in person) unless the other party had agreed to service by email or a court order specified that email was OK.

What did the court order - assuming there was one - say?  Had the other party agreed to service by email?

This is one of those areas in small claims where as a claimant-in-person you really need to know the procedural rules.

user1977

Meadows1 said:

I just think she should have informed me 

It's pretty commonplace for solicitors firms to have general disclaimers that they're not accepting service by email (unless specifically agreed to the contrary). So are you sure she hadn't already informed you somehow?

pinkshoes

Meadows1 said:

In the middle of going to the small claims court and I emailed my witness statement to the defendant's solicitor, it was due on the 23rd Feb before 4.pm, i sent it at 1.35pm. I received a receipted reply on her behalf as she was off that day, however she contacted me on the Monday to say the witness statements are not being accepted as we had not discussed receipt by email. She sent hers by next day mail, which I received on time. I just think she should have informed me as I am so worried about it being struck out of court. Does anyone know if the judge would be on my side, I think this is so unfair.

A starting point would be asking to see the documentation that had been sent to you informing you that witness statements could not be sent via email. 

As they were not even in that day, then you could inform the judge that they would not have received the letter version either. I personally would have sent a letter version posted first class the moment they informed me the email version was not acceptable. Have you since sent this in letter form in the post with proof of postage?

A judge is a human being and this is no doubt a common mistake so as long as you immediately rectified your mistake, it probably won't be an issue. 

Why are you flagging this up now, a month later?

MacPingu1986

As a starting point unless the other side has agreed to accept service of documents/statements etc.. by email then it must be via in person/mail/fax.

Yes it feels unfair and annoying. Rules around court processes and their strictness do feel strange when we're mostly used to the day-to-day world of consumer protection which doesn't have these sort of procedural pitfalls.

OK so not great but you are where you are - so what can you do? Judges *generally* tend to treat parties who aren't represented by solicitors ("litigants in person") with more sympathy when it comes to failing to comply with a procedural rule, provided it's not deliberate and the other side hasn't been disadvantaged. There's also sometimes an expectation that the solicitors acting for the other side will be somewhat helpful and not procedurally "tricky" like this with litigants in person.

Presume there's no dispute that the copy statement arrived by email on the deadline day?

No guarantees at all but I think there's a chance the judge will take a sympathetic view and treat the statement as being validly served. Ultimately you'll just have to proceed for now and see how it goes.

PHK

I agree mostly with @MacPingu1986 ,  in small claims I've only ever seen  the directions say that  documents should be posted. Both to the court and to the other side. 

Judges are human though and they will react differently to directions not being followed. In my experience they do show a great deal of patience with non-professionals. 

Jenni_D

My experience from reading court threads in the Parking board is that service by email is almost always accepted. Certainly the courts (almost always) accept statements (Defence and Witness) by email. 🤷‍♀️