Letter from a solicitor to attend court

[canyou]

Long story short My DP used to work as a paramedic for an NHS trust up to 4 yrs ago when we moved to a new country not in the UK [IRL]. In the post yesterday he received a letter from a solicitor acting on for some one who had an accident 7 yrs ago and is suing the council, the letter is short and sweet and rude demanding he attend court and he forward his mobile number to them as he is their witness. DP has no memory of the accident that the solicitor is calling a major incident. Also the letter came straight from solicitor and not through former employer.
We are annoyed that our address was handed over as we have children who are vulnerable [fostered] and also we have no clue how they or who actually gave them the address.
Also he does not want to travel to court in another country to say I cannot remember.
So finally can he just write back and say he cannot remember, travel costs etc are not possible at this time [it would cost him loss of earnings or holidays] and he would before a solicitor here give a sworn account that he remembers nothing of the person or the incident. His partner at the time has also been contacted, he has no memory of it either and has retired and suffering from early onset dementia so we assume his evidence would hold no weight.
TIA for any advice

I would write back and tell them to deal with his former employer, and leave it at that unless you receive any info from the NHS trust.

babybarrister - am I right in assuming a barrister/solictor cannot order someone to attend court or indeed order anyone to do anything and that this lawyer is just trying to intimidate someone?

Am I right in saying that only a court can order someone to appear?

Agree with baby - depending on where you are, there may be no way of getting a witness summons to compel him to attend court if he didn't wish to do so voluntarily.

Also, unless he has actually given a witness statement I would say it would be pretty unlikely he would be summonsed anyway - if I was the Council I would probably object to a court receiving evidence from a witness whose evidence hadn't been properly served.

Beta - yes, a witness summons has to come from a court and not from a solicitor/barrister

baby/32not - thats what I thought. I wonder if this lawyer is effectively trying to get DH to turn up without getting an order because he/she knows the court would reject the application and/or because the testimony that DH would be giving would be better received by the court if it appeared to have been given 'voluntarily' rather than because an order was issued.

I certainly would not appear as a witness unless under court order.

Not very useful I think it's unusual to be asked to appear without having been asked for a statement and as mentioned the NHS trust would have to be involved so that he could access his records - assuming they have already been asked for by the sols as most records only kept for 7 years... I certainly think his diagnosis should have an impact though.

I work in PI claims and these things take a long time! Hope you can get some more info and peace of mind.

Thank you all for the replies, it is the solicitor saying he must attend and DP did want to ignore the letter
I will have a chat with him we are dealing with a solicitor here re buying a house and a will etc so I think he should give a sworn statement in her presence and send it to the solicitor which will effectively say I don't remember anything and leave it at that the solicitor has our address so I assume the court would have it if he is really needed in court
There would be a full report which would have been done and filed at the time of the accident tbh it was probably one of ten reports they did that day

I think they're either incompetent or bloody cheeky (or both). A solicitor can't order anyone to do anything, only the court can do that. I find it extraordinary that they haven't approached him politely in order to get a statement for use in the proceedings if they think he can help them.... most bizarre to want someone at court when you have no clue what they are going to say! has he already given a police statement at the time of the incident? Is this what they are relying on as evidence??

oops. x posts. Then they are asking for him based on what he said in that report. your dp needs to decide if he is willing to go (ask about travel costs etc) or tell them that he wont be coming unless courts directs him to....

The solicitor is trying it on, having seen his name in the ambulance daily logs or summat. If he hasn't made a statement I would write back saying he has no recollection of the incident and therefore will not be able to provide any evidence in Court. If they want to try and get a summons let them, sounds like his appearance in Court would be a huge waste of everyone's time and the Judge asked to issue the summons would probably notice this.

If he does get summonsed aren't you entitled to ask for travel costs or loss of earnings? Think it is capped at a flat rate iirc but still.

The thing nagging at the back of my mind is whether DH might be being lined up to be sued for negligence and this is just a fishing expedition to see what he says?

Yes MoreBeta, that is why I think the content of the letter should be ignored and an assertion made that the employer is to be dealt with only. I am sure the NHS legal department are more equipped to deal with this.

Well DP is still of the frame of mind that it is not an official letter, and ignore it as it was delivered through standard post so there is no proof he got it.
MoreBeta I did think that but the letter does specify the council she is suing and well here in IRL there is only a specific time frame to sue and it would be to ate now I assume UK is the same. Although here if you refuse the settlement according to the book of quantum you stand to come away with less and costs.
DP not to worried if he needs to go to court it is part of his job but yes I don't think the court would like to pay airline fares, accommodation and loss of earnings to DP for him to say I don't remember but the report I wrote and filed is what I saw/did etc.
I will try get him to ring his old supervisor as they have to have provided them with the reports etc so he may know can DP read them or not and what his should do. If he was still working there it would be look at file, turn up wait in court and get paid for the day and get a nice meal paid from expenses.
I assume as there is a case there the files were not destroyed
So his costs would be loss of earnings, return flights, accommodation and meals also would they pay child care if we have to have that as I do work.
Seriously there are some days I would love him to have a nice 9-5 desk job
Thanks for all of the above

to ate = to late

Billy He no longer works with NHS so technically can not access any old files and am not sure but normally they would have gotten a court summons delivered to their base so this 'letter' has confused and concerned us a bit as it is unusual.
Even here if he has to attend court the garda will hand deliver summons to the work place or if it is important and out of the blue tomorrow they might deliver to the house all our DC know to take and sign nothing that is for DP

I would have thought that regardless of his employment position now, it would have been his employment position when the event occurred that mattered, and therefore an approach should have been made to or through the NHS trust he was working for at the time. Particularly as he no longer has any authority to access records.

However, my experience is in tax law, and so I may be talking utter rubbish again

Hope it all works out!