we have been sent a notice of allocation to fast track in the county court, ( a case some may remember where my dad is defendant, and the claimant was defrauding insurance companies and the insurance company suspected my dad was accomplice…)
FIRSTLY, we have been sent an ORDER…where the judge has ordered that
a disclosure of documents shall be dealt with as follows,
both parties shall give to each other standard disclosure of documents by serving copies together with a disclosure statement…
What does this mean, we have already given a defence file in, whats a disclosure statement and serving copies?
also we need to send a up to date counter-schedule of loss to the court and to claimant…?? now the accident was in 2007, and was supposesdly resolved then as well, what do we send now as a loss? do we include the amouint the insurance payout for my dads damaged car that occured in the accident.
thanks
Re: any lawyers here, need help with a case.
Hi, i hope i can help u a bit, im a trainee lawyer
Firstly i have to ask why u havent instructed a solicitor already..?? i assume there is a big amount of money in question and ur dad being the defendant is not a good thing!
Disclosure of documents is the documents you will be relying on at the trial, these need to be listed and copies need to be given to the claimant (or his/her solicitors if they have instructed any) and another copy has to be sent to the court.
The claimant/solicitors will also provide u with a list of documents that they shall be relying on at the trial.
This is so that both parties know what to expect, u will not be allowed to present any evidence at the trial which has not been disclosed on the list....real life cases are VERY different to the ones we see on tv/films where evidence is presented in the last second or someone comes running through the doors shouting 'wait'.
The amount of loss u want to claim is, the costs of time off work, repairs, loss of valuables etc and a clear working out has to be given
I recommend u inistruct a solicitor if ur unsure of any of the above and it seems to me that u r.
I hope ur dad defends the case successfully!!
Re: any lawyers here, need help with a case.
reason we didnt instruct solicitor because the claim is worth 7000k and the lawyers are charing 11000k to defend a case that is worth less....
we decided to give a defence statements in, and all necessary paperwork, so not sure why they asking again if its the same thing?
Re: any lawyers here, need help with a case.
^ Because sometimes parties can obtain other evidence or paperwork after submitting the defence case statement i.e if they've been waiting for a report from an independant medical expert which wasn't ready at the time the defence case statement was submitted.
If you don't have any additional papers then that's fine, just submit a COMPLETE set of papers, clearly indexed and marked to all parties. Defence will do the same and that way, when you get to your hearing all parties including the Judge will be aware of what each persons case is.
Schedule of loss is as princessrocks says, minus the payment already received from the insurance company. Did your dad have to hire a car, or cancel any lessons for example. These can also be added to the loss schedule.
Re: any lawyers here, need help with a case.
hi thanks alot, i dont think we have any additional papers, so basically i have to send what we alreayd sent AGAIN? and make 4 copies of it like we did last time?? so just a copy of what we sent before?
we do not have any witnesses, so we do not need to send any witness evidence etc??( even though its written in the ORDER)
and although my dad cancelled lessons/hired car, what if they ask for proof, this was 3 years ago, he doesnt have the lessons cancelled list, or recpeit of car hire, we couldnt find it, although dad insists it was the insurance who hired the car for him....but its the insurance who are now saying my dads involved with claimant.....
thanks for your help.
also britchick, is it wise that we decided not to go to a lawyer, i mean, we did try, but they charging twice as much as what the case is worth...so didnt see the point??? also the case is heavier on the claimant, my dad as 1st def, theres not too much going against him, not enough that we felt we needed to hire a lawyer wholl charge the earth...
Re: any lawyers here, need help with a case.
If you don't have any additional paperwork then you can submit a statement to conform that what has already been submitted is all the evidence that you will rely on in court, and include a full list of what this is. Confirm that you have no witnesses other than the defendant himself (are you attending court or giving evidence? If so, you need to state this)
It's not going to help your case if you can't even establish the details of the car hire costs, it's not unreasonable to expect someone self employed to keep these kind of records for several years but that's something that you're going to have to explain in court when no doubt asked about it.
Whether you decide to seek legal advice or not is really up to you - I understand cost is the main issue so I guess you've answered your own question. I can't say whether your assumption that the case is stronger or weaker against your father is correct and sadly civil law doesn't give you the rights to free legal representation as in criminal matters. Either your father represents himself or he pays for legal representation.
Has he contacted his current insurers to see whether they offer help with legal claims - I'm assuming that since the accident he actually added this service to his insurance policy and if so, they should deal with it.