I have civil court case this month at county court. I am suing a builder for horrendously screwing up our loft conversion and leaving us out of pocket (he is suing us too, claims we owe him money).
Part of our argument (not all by a long shot but one element) is that he became aggressive and intimidating towards the end, and made it impossible for us to have in the house.
Half way through the project one of (his only by this point) paid employees left.
Just before christmas this old employee dropped around some keys to our house which he had, and to see how the loft went and let us know he had photos if we needed it. He had heard about the court case from the builder during the only time they spoke.
This guy came around today, clearly worried. He has had a phone call from the builder who is pressurising him to be a witness to testify at court that his work was good and he did everything properly and according to our wishes. This guy said that the builder had previously tried to pin some faulty work on him and he was worried i think he would be blamed. We reassured him as far as we were concerned the builder was responsible regardless of who physically did the work and we would not sue him personally.
He said that he was half expecting this builder to be sat on his couch when he got home 'having a cup of tea' with his mother and making out like it was a social call, but will put pressure on him and his mother for him to stand. He said that if he attends as a witness he will only tell the truth, but that if the builder loses he is worried he will made a scape goat and there might be repercussions as he knows his family and he feels the builder is perhaps a little 'unhinged'.
DH is also worried, that as this builder is running scared as we have a wealth of evidence against him he might turn nasty to us, but we have no proof of this.
I have advised him that if he is concerned about intimidation, maybe he should contact the court and advise them he is worried.
However, is there anything we can do? Who we would we talk to, to raise our concerns? I am not really concerned that potentially false evidence from this ex employee would tip it against us, as it won't, but am concerned that the builder is using bullying tactics in an attempt to win this court case and if so, what might happen if/when he loses?
Any advice?