Proposal to deal with claim 'on the papers' - do I agree or not?

[reallymadwoman]

Background - I filed a claim under the Equality Act regarding failure to make a reasonable adjustment and indirect discrimination, damages limited to £10,000. We've been through all the usual stages including a preliminary hearing and witness statements and bundles were filed and exchanged just over a month ago. Each of the 3 bundles (claimant and 2 defendants) runs to over 300 pages and the hearing, scheduled for next month, was expected to take 2 days.

 

Yesterday I received an order from the Court saying they proposed to deal with the claim without a hearing using the papers. I have until the end of this week to agree or object/submit any further documents. If I agree I can't change my mind or complain later that it wasn't a fair way to deal with it - if I lost, the only recourse would be an appeal if there were grounds.

 

Pros - I won't have to actually go to Court and argue my case against 2 barristers

The case will be over - it's already taken more than a year and a huge amount of my time, with the current situation I can see it being another year before we get to an actual hearing

 

I've been preparing a skeleton argument (that's actually a very well-padded if not downright obese argument, I was going to prune later) for the last month so it won't take too much more effort to get it to the Court by the end of the week, and it's likely to be far more coherent than me trying to remember it all in Court

 

Cons - the defendants have been less than co-operative. One reason my bundle is so huge is that they point blank refused to even try to narrow the issues as ordered in the preliminary hearing even though it should have been relatively easy to agree most of the facts. I really wanted to ask at least some of the list of questions I'd prepared which aren't answered anywhere in their bundles

 

I found it really difficult to put into writing how the treatment made me feel. If we get to the point of awarding damages I really think giving evidence in person would be far more effective

 

I'm wary of filing and serving my skeleton argument possibly well in advance of when the defendants might serve/file theirs - I have no doubt that the Court will give them extra time if they ask

 

If I do disagree with the order, what grounds would I give? 

 

Any advice or opinions? I know it's not something anyone will have come across before.

 

 

[reallymadwoman]

To update, in the end I didn't have to make a decision as both defendants objected to a paper hearing.

 

I'm waiting for further contact from the Court as to what will happen next. I can't do a telephone hearing because of hearing problems so we may have to wait a very long time for this to be over and done with.