Missed witness statement help

Ltique · 6 April 2019 at 6:59PM

Hi all

So I have defended my claim with Gladstone’s on the grounds of very poor signage. I wrote my defence and heard nothing since. So I thought. I came back from holiday and had a missed letter that I glanced over and completely missed the part of doing a witness statement. My court date is Friday 12th April. The witness statement was due a week ago. Is there anything I can do? Should I just turn up without it? My expectations of winning this are now very low.

Thanks in advance

Redx · 6 April 2019 at 7:30PM

get it submitted asap, along with any EXHIBITS and your costs as well, plus start drafting your skeleton argument too

Ltique · 6 April 2019 at 10:11PM

Thanks for the reply. If I sent on Monday will it still be considered when I go to the hearing on Friday?

KeithP · 6 April 2019 at 10:16PM

Hand deliver it to the court on Monday morning - all nicely presented in a ring binder or folder - together with your evidence.

Of course you must also send a copy to the Claimant. Email that.

Redx · 6 April 2019 at 10:18PM

add a letter of apology in with the late WS and ask that the judge allow it and the exhibits into evidence , plus your costs statement, email the claimant as well

Ltique · 6 April 2019 at 10:33PM

Thanks again for the advice. I can take it first thing Monday morning and email it to Gladstones.

I have searched here for other posts regarding witness statements and haven’t found much. How does my WS differ from my original defence, and what is a skeleton defence? I am just not sure extractly what I need to write. I thought my original defence would be what I filed and would use at the hearing.

Thanks in advance

Redx · 6 April 2019 at 10:40PM

all this is covered in the NEWBIES thread, mainly by BARGEPOLE and LOC123 , please read those references carefully

a WS is about what you and any other witnesses know about this case, plus your EXHIBITS too (evidence), not the legal defence , so it could be about what you saw on the day or have seen and found out since that day, you are a witness , so you tell it as it is

a defence is about legal arguments , not what happened on the day

the SKELETON is not a defence , its a bullet point breakdown of the case in simple short points , as an aid memoir , and I said argument , not defence , so where did you get skeleton defence from ?

there are DOZENS of witness statements on this forum , because each and every court case has them , same as yours does

and the papers from your local court told you exactly what needs to be submitted and the due date, please read it again , so if you thought it was your defence that you would be using , then why has the court directed you in writing to providing the WS + EXHIBITS ?

Ltique · 7 April 2019 at 9:38AM

Apologies I was searching in this thread, not the forum!

I ask because the WS from GS is titled 'Defence' and goes on to use legal aspects to defend the case. It looks more like the defence I have already submitted.

I know I cannot introduce new arguments that I did not mention in my defence, but GS have now sent me a site map that I did not have previously. I can now argue further that the sign nearest to me was missing, and the next available sign was pointing into a bush (I have photographs of this). I did mention the sign pointing into the bush in my defence, but not the missing sign as I wasn't aware it should have been there. Can I refer to these in the witness statement?

Thanks in advance

Le_Kirk · 7 April 2019 at 11:02AM

Ltique wrote: »

I know I cannot introduce new arguments that I did not mention in my defence, but GS have now sent me a site map that I did not have previously. I can now argue further that the sign nearest to me was missing, and the next available sign was pointing into a bush (I have photographs of this). I did mention the sign pointing into the bush in my defence, but not the missing sign as I wasn't aware it should have been there. Can I refer to these in the witness statement?

As posted by Redx, they are things you have found out since that day.

a WS is about what you and any other witnesses know about this case, plus your EXHIBITS too (evidence), not the legal defence , so it could be about what you saw on the day or have seen and found out since that day, you are a witness , so you tell it as it is

[Deleted User] · 8 April 2019 at 8:54AM

ask because the WS from GS is titled 'Defence'

Did you make a counterclaim?

Coupon-mad · 19 April 2019 at 3:11PM

Ltique wrote: »

Apologies I was searching in this thread, not the forum!

I ask because the WS from GS is titled 'Defence' and goes on to use legal aspects to defend the case. It looks more like the defence I have already submitted.

That part was obviously them summarising your defence!

I know I cannot introduce new arguments that I did not mention in my defence,

You can probably shoehorn them in!

but GS have now sent me a site map that I did not have previously. I can now argue further that the sign nearest to me was missing, and the next available sign was pointing into a bush (I have photographs of this). I did mention the sign pointing into the bush in my defence, but not the missing sign as I wasn't aware it should have been there.

Can I refer to these in the witness statement?

Of course - your WS should have torn into theirs and ripped it apart (see the thread by Lop5, it's easy to expose the errors and omissions).

Have you now submitted your WS and evidence?

Missed witness statement help

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