Defending small claims court action

[AndyOrch]

" but it is generally the case that litigants in person are given an awful lot of leeway to miss deadlines."

 

But not as much as the Claimants SP:wink:

[jacobina]

" but it is generally the case that litigants in person are given an awful lot of leeway to miss deadlines."

 

But not as much as the Claimants SP:wink:

 

Too true !

 

As the case is still going forward we need to get a copy of the clinic notes from the claimant. We have asked for these before but to no avail. We asked again after the court hearing and the claimant said they are only normally released to another vet!?.... I want to request them under part 18. Do I do this in the form of a letter in the first instance to the claimant stating that we are writing under part 18? Do I need to give a reason for requesting them? They are clearly relevant, and we already have a copy of the clinic notes from the 2nd vet who subsequently treated the horse and brought him back to full health.

 

J

[AndyOrch]

You cant actually request the documents using CPR 18 you can ask for information pertaining to them.Without knowing the full details of your thread or what satge you are at then you will get further opportunity at AQ Draft Directions if Fast Track) or Standard Disclosure.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[jacobina]

Hmmmm, don't understand...... We are the defendant in a small claims track, the claimant is a vet who misdiagnosed my daughter's horse and did not seem to understand how sick the horse was. After 3 weeks in his care his last visit resulted in my daughter taking the horse for a second opinion. The horse was diagnosed within two hours and hospitalised for 7 days and treated with several drugs intravenously and kept sedated. His condition was life threatening. We have not paid the first vets bill as we do not believe he acted with reasonable care and was negligent. Also, we have a very large second bill which has been paid in full. The claimant managed to default on three consecutive court orders to put an expert witness report in place, hence the strike Out hearing yesterday, which we, the defendant applied for. A court order has now been put in place with specific dates for the claimant to adhere to, to find, agree with us, instruct and obtain expert witness report. A final hearing for the case withthe expert witness report is in July. We would like to see the clinic notes from the first vet as during the time he was treating the horse there are other circumstances in our defence pack where the vet has acted in appropriately and overdosed the horse with sedation, and used undue force . Previous advice says to use part 18.

 

How does standard disclosure work?

 

Thanks

J

[AndyOrch]

Small claims track cases are very much controlled by the DJ and disclosures requested by you the defendant are restricted in a way that you cant draft directions and are at the mercy of the DJ to request disclosure.So you cant orchestrate or lead the claimant in disclosure unlike fast track.

If you have not completed the DQ as yet then the claim is in effect untracked so CPR does apply.CPR 31.14 for documents referred to in their particulars of claim and CPR 18 for information not referred to.

 

Standard disclosure happens after the case is allocated and Witness Statements have been exchanged.Standard disclosure will be each parties documents referred to and used within the particulars and the defence.So if the Vet has referred to the case notes in his Witness statement then he must disclose them and you can request that they be disclosed to you before trial.

 

Its a case of knowing the process and how to weed information from the other party to support your defence/case.

[andydd]

As mentioned above cpr 18 and 31 doesnt apply tothe small track, they can be used if your case is on fast/multi track and (theoritically at least), BEFORE allocation (this is why it is mentioned quite a bit on this forum), once allocated they cant be used, this is simply to keep snmall claims as uncomplex and cheap as possible.

 

You could of course call a vet as an espert witness, BUT this needs Judgfes permission, again, simply to keep costs down.

 

Andy