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Legal matters

Anyone been to a small claims court?

12 replies

pickupthismess · 01/12/2009 15:04

Hi I'm a freelancer and I have to go to the small claims court to try and get money back from a 'client'. The court letter says I should bring witness statements and backup documents and I'm really not sure how to present them for the judge. Any help v gratefully received.

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pickupthismess · 01/12/2009 22:00

anyone?

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fridayschild · 03/12/2009 13:50

Neatly!

Sorry to be so glib, but you should present documents in a logical order - chronological is usually good. Or if the witness statement refers to the supporting documents, put those documents behind the statement. If you have a lot you can ring bind them and number the pages, or put numbered dividers between them with an index at the front.

The point of this is when you say your stuff, if you say "the e mail of 14th Jan confirmed the price" and "the e mail of 28 Feb confirmed the work had arrived and the client was ok with the quality", Judge will be able to find the e mails of 14th Jan and 28 Feb relatively quickly.

Solicitors would bring 3 copies: one for them, one for the judge and one for the other side. If you can afford to do this it will help you look professional and business like.

You need to be clear and dispassionate. Leave your emotions about how you have been treated outside the court and concentrate on the facts.

If you are plaintiff you should say your piece first, the client gets to reply and then you can say something to sum up, I think, although this is rather determined by the judge and the conduct of the parties. There is certainly no need to respond to every single comment by leaping up and shouting "Objection your honour!". Make notes of points you would like to rebut and wait your turn. Sometimes it is enough to state that you disagree with X's account of a telephone conversation - there is no need to go on to say that X has always been a lying swine and untrustworthy. The judge's role is to decide which of you has remembered the conversation better, and whether X is a fibber with his fingers crossed behind his back. If you manage not to stoop to X's level it is more likely the judge will prefer your account.

I have not been in the small claims court since I was a trainee solicitor about 15 years ago, but I do not think they will have changed much.

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pickupthismess · 03/12/2009 16:14

That is really a great help friday.

We don't have any witness statements really. Is it important to have any character references or things like that?

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fridayschild · 03/12/2009 19:14

The witness statements are supposed to be statements of fact where that is not relevant from the documents. For example, I saw the red car drive very fast down the road before it crashed into the tree.

I guess your claim is for an unpaid bill? So your paperwork needs to show a contract, evidence the contract was fulfilled, and an invoice which is not paid. The witness statement might be part of this, if the price was agreed on the phone, for example, or if you'd done repeat business and this was supposed to be another one of those jobs you always did in this way for that price, or if there's nothing in writing about when the work was done. Or your witness statement could say "I gave X the curtains on 14th Jan as shown on the invoice of that date. When I handed them over she said she was really delighted with the quality of work and the mumsnet logo I had embroidered by hand on them." Part of this refers to your documents; the other part is oral only and so not documented.

Character references would only be relevant in certain specific cases.

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pickupthismess · 05/12/2009 18:27

friday can I continue picking your brain????

  1. Re all those documents I sent when I made my original claim - do I need to recopy and put in this indexed file for the judge?


At the moment they would just have a wadge of paper. I wasn't sure if they just used those to see if the claim was worth taking to court and then maybe filed away or will the judge get aggravated if I effectively bring them twice?

  1. Yep, my claim is for an unpaid bill but the client disputes that I provided what they asked for (utter liars!!). Much of the discussions took place by phone so should I detail those conversations bearing in mind they are over five months ago.
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EldritchCleaver · 07/12/2009 15:01

Pickup,
I don't do small claims but the same basic principles really apply to hearings anywhere.

I would copy the documents again. The key thing is to have all the documents in one place, and for everyone to have them in the same version so you can all follow things easily.

If you can bear it, do page numbers going through from the first to the last page of each file. Then when you do your notes of what to say, put in the page numbers so you remember where to go for the documents you mention.

In your statement detail all conversations as clearly as you can remember with dates or approximate dates if possible. Br frank about not remembering if that is the case. Don't just stick to points in your favour-you can mention and deal with your client's points to say why they are wrong.
Good luck.

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fridayschild · 07/12/2009 16:37

What Eldritch said

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pickupthismess · 08/12/2009 10:01

Will the defendant have been asked to do similar out of interest or do they just show up and defend themselves against my case?

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fridayschild · 09/12/2009 13:57

Yes, they should do the same. Whether they do or not is another question!

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mamas12 · 14/12/2009 23:06

We recently went to small claims court for a customer not paying, he claimed that it was not his responsibilty as he is not the business, he is an individual.
We showed the judge the invoices and emails and as the customers name was on the invoice the contract was with him and he was very good at not actually laughing him out of court but it was near as dammit.
Make sure you have copies as previous posters have advised and good luck.
(btw it was great to be found quote 'credible witnesses')!!

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pickupthismess · 16/12/2009 17:41

Thanks all. All your info has been really helpful. Our case is v difficult because we produced work and the client claimed they asked for something else. We can't really prove our case as we only have verbal discussions but we are right so I am determined to take this all the way (though dreading it).

Mamas - how did the judge treat you at the start of the case?

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mamas12 · 20/12/2009 01:00

Hello pickup
The judge gets to read all relevent papers beforehand so they could see how the land lies so to speak and really we were so reasonable and determined not to be shat on and he (customer) was so 'slimey' to use a phrase that it really was an open and shut case.
Good luck with it, they see all sorts and know people I think so just be truthful and calm about it and it will be okay (hope so anyway)

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