Plumber being taken to Court

SVaz

How has he not got legal cover with his trade insurance? 

Getoffmycloud

SVaz said:

How has he not got legal cover with his trade insurance? 

He does have legal cover with his trade insurance, but they wouldn't take on the case as they didn't believe there was more than a 51% chance of winning.

Getoffmycloud

A_Geordie said:

Great news! If I am interpreting the order correctly: 

1. The judge reviewing the papers seems to have agreed with you and is calling BS on the compensation amount. I suspect the judge already had in mind that the claim should probably be allocated to the small claims track but has ordered a hearing to allow the claimant an opportunity to argue their case and justify the amount. The part of the order that says damages for "stress and inconvenience" are limited under English law to stress and inconvenience caused by physical discomfort only is quite telling.

The court is essentially saying that the claimant cannot claim under these heads of loss for this type of claim and therefore the claimant will be expected to justify at the hearing why £11,500 is a reasonable amount of damages for the peace of mind aspect. In light of the case law that would have been pointed out in the DQ, in my view the claimant needs a miracle or pull something special out of the hat to convince the court that 3x the cost of the total contract is a justified amount where no public court record (least that I'm aware of) has given such an award of this type.

2. The judge is also questioning whether an expert report is actually necessary. There are very detailed and specific rules around the use of experts who must be independent, produce a report in the format prescribed by the rules and ultimately they owe a duty to the court and not the parties the claim. This is where your husband's knowledge and expertise is best served to explain this point and why an expert is not needed.

For example, it doesn't require an expert report to show that the pipe fittings are leaking, are not fitted correctly or that the tiles are not aligned how they should be. A much more less expensive option could be to introduce photographs/video evidence together with a witness statement from a professional plumber or whoever explaining the issues and the work needed to rectify the alleged damage or non-performance of work. The plumber can then come to court and your husband can question him/her on their statement to question their credibility and what has been said in the statement.

When is the hearing? 

@A_Geordie

Hi Geordie

I just wanted to let you know the outcome of the hearing yesterday. Unfortunately it didn't go our way and it has been allocated to the fast track. Even though it unfortunately didn't work I still wanted to thank you for the taking the time to help. I really am very grateful to you; thank you.

Thomas_Holding

Getoffmycloud said:

SVaz said:

How has he not got legal cover with his trade insurance? 

He does have legal cover with his trade insurance, but they wouldn't take on the case as they didn't believe there was more than a 51% chance of winning.

That is appalling - particularly since they decide what the chance is and have an incentive to not say it is less than 51% chance.

Getoffmycloud

Thomas_Holding said:

Getoffmycloud said:

SVaz said:

How has he not got legal cover with his trade insurance? 

He does have legal cover with his trade insurance, but they wouldn't take on the case as they didn't believe there was more than a 51% chance of winning.

That is appalling - particularly since they decide what the chance is and have an incentive to not say it is less than 51% chance.

Completely agree, but despite trying to argue the case they wouldn't change their mind. Shame they don't advise you of things like this when you take the insurance out!