Do I /can I submit evidence in response to receiving the claimants bundle?

Kid.Kadoo

Hi All-

TL;DR- Received a piece of evidence in their witness/evidence pack that I would counter with an old document- do I have to submit to court before the hearing, or do I keep my rebuttal evidence until the actual hearing next month?

I have an ongoing case between myself and carparking firm. We are now at the stage of having submitted witness statements and evidence for the hearing which will be next month. I received their bundle last Friday, which contains a contract between them and my old housing management company to allegedly allow them to operate in my residential car park (where I was issued a fine for not displaying a permit despite my lease not stating this or being varied). 

I believe this to be a huge silver bullet for me, as this is the only contract they have provided. Because - in the case that the judge for some mad reason believes that this allowed them to operate despite no variance to my lease, then that contract is with the OLD housing management company anyway!! A new company took over in 2020, well before I was issued a "ticket". My gut instinct says to me that because they have no renewed signing with the new management company, that renders the old contract moot anyway and they have no valid contract to manage that carpark regardless. AM I RIGHT??

I have a copy of my old management company's letter stating their end date, back in 2020. Do I now need to send this to the court as I will want to use this at the hearing? Or do I hold onto it until the day of the hearing itself?

I have a counter claim in for trespass and data protection stuff. Would this be valid, based on the fact they have no valid contract? (Am I even right about the valid contract? Are they allowed to just carry over the signing of the previous company??)

Coupon-mad

I believe this to be a huge silver bullet for me, as this is the only contract they have provided. Because - in the case that the judge for some mad reason believes that this allowed them to operate despite no variance to my lease, then that contract is with the OLD housing management company anyway!! A new company took over in 2020, well before I was issued a "ticket".

I'd attack that at the hearing, however...

- I have a copy of my old management company's letter stating their end date, back in 2020. Do I now need to send this to the court as I will want to use this at the hearing? Or do I hold onto it until the day of the hearing itself?

If you want to use it at the hearing you will need to file and serve it now with a supplementary WS.

Do you want to also add a skeleton argument citing the new bombshell case of Mazur v Speechlys (if relevant to who signed their Claim form and/or their WS?) and the recent landmark residential case: Duchess of Bedford House?

...and maybe Simon Clay v Civil Enforcement Ltd, if you don't already have that case i. Support of your counterclaim?

Kid.Kadoo

@Coupon-mad

My concern is that if I send in the document showing the date the previous management ended, that they will try to create, backdate, and submit a new contract between them and the new management, which will seem to the judge as though there has been a contract in place all this time, which there clearly isn't otherwise they would have send the new updated one to begin with if they had it.

If I don't send the document in, will I be able to just counter their old contract verbally by stating to the judge that the old management were no longer in control at that time?

With regards to my witness statement - if I supplementary one would that be an amended version of the orginal, or a separate one with the additional information?

Additionally, my current WS seems quite bare bones, and although I have referenced Pace v Mr N [2016] C6GF14F0 [2016] , as well as Link Parking v Ms P C7GF50J7 [2016], I have not picked put relevant paragraphs to include in the WS- is that what the skeleton argument is for? To pick out the relevant paragraphs for ease of reading? (I have submitted the transcripts of both of these as evidence).

On top of that, I have also referenced Vidal-Hall v Google Inc [2014] EWHC 13 (QB) and Halliday v Creation Consumer Finance Ltd [2013] All ER (D) 199 for my counter claim, but could not find transcripts of them to enter as evidence- do I need to submit transcripts as evidence? Or can I just reference relevant information from them in my argument??

Thank you for your help!! 🙏🏽 

Coupon-mad

You need transcripts of everything as well as the cases I mentioned. You can find them all online. You need to attach all this to a signed skeleton argument asap or your defence & counterclaim seems weak in terms of authorities.

The judge won't go looking for case law (except Beavis which is readily to hand).

Car1980

My concern is that if I send in the document showing the date the previous management ended, that they will try to create, backdate, and submit a new contract between them and the new management, which will seem to the judge as though there has been a contract in place all this time

They'd have to submit that as a supplementary WS themselves, and faffing about with backdating would be risky.

You can cover yourself to a degree by referring to it as an anomaly, or such, rather than a "gotcha!" piece of evidence so that it doesn't backfire.

Kid.Kadoo

@Car1980 "refer to it as an anomaly" -how do you mean? In my supplementary witness statement? Or skeleton argument?

Kid.Kadoo

@Coupon-mad is there a particular place/resource for transcripts? I did google for the ones for my counterclaim but only found analyses of them rather than actual transcripts

Coupon-mad

You need to look for bailii links which are often listed on the pages you've found, e.g. On websites like Casemine.

Car1980

Kid.Kadoo said:

@Car1980 "refer to it as an anomaly" -how do you mean? In my supplementary witness statement? Or skeleton argument?

Supplementary WS.

You need a paragraph to explain your additional exhibit. 

Kid.Kadoo

@Coupon-mad the claimants' witness statement and evidence submission has been written and signed by a paralegal. Does that come under the Mazur v Speechlys case? Is a paralegal authorised to do this?

The witness statement from the paralegal says "I have prepared this witness statement under the supervision of my principal. The matters to which I refer are within my own knowledge, or based on information provided to me by the claimant within the course of my instruction, save where expressly stated to the contrary, and our true to the best of my knowledge, information and belief. I am duly authorised by the claimant to make this statement on its behalf."

Coupon-mad

Search the forum for a phrase from that. Newest results.

Yes Mazur applies. Copy from one done in October/November already.