Court hearing tomorrow

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Soldato
Joined
6 Mar 2008
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Leicestershire
Hi all,

I have a Court hearing tomorrow through the Small Claims Track.

I am the Claimant, taking my ex-landlord to court, who has counterclaimed (surprise surprise).

He has alleged rent arrears and damages to his shack of a house. We have proved with bank statements etc. that he actually owes US money for rent, and regarding the damages - we deny all allegations.

Anyway, that's the story behind the case, I was just wondering if anyone has been to Court through the Small Claims procedure and what it is like, what can I expect?

I've never been to a Court Hearing before so I am a bit nerveous, but I'm also feeling quite bad because I'm just getting over a horrible bout of the flu which developed symptomatically last Friday. I really don't feel like attending tomorrow, as I feel a bit better and am over the worst of it now, but my head feels quite cloudy, just hope I am better tomorrow.
 
My case never made it to hearing as the landlord settled out of court.

It won't be a big deal, though -- you may not even be in the same room with the landlord as accounts are given.

Basically, just offer up whatever evidence you can, and remain CALM and POLITE. Listen intently, and don't butt into anything. Most judges are heavily biased against landlords anyway as, stereotypically, the majority are money-grubbing ******** (landlords, not judges ;)).
 
I have attended, during work experience. :p

Dress smart, present your arguments logically, clearly and with evidence. Avoid personal attacks, or anything you cant backup.

AFAIK the small claims will judge fairly simply on evidence - If you have good evidence that he owes you money, you should do OK. His evidence of 'house damage' cant be proved to have been caused by you.
 
Ok that sounds like sound advice, I guess what I knew already but it's just nice to see it layed out in a coherent and sensible way. Thanks for the advice.
 
When I accompanied my friend through a similar experience he was very well organised with his paperwork, evidence etc all categorised, ordered & even different coloured articles fto differentiate obviously.
Within minutes I could tell the judge was impressed with this & appearred to warm to/favour my friend.
His opposition on the other hand had to rumamge for every item of documentation making the whole process tiresome. I'm sure this helped secure a victory for my friend.

The one thing I took from the experience was to be organised & accurate.
 
Impersonate Ace Ventura this will guarentee you get the Judges attention.

Or on a more serious note take all the advise above.
 
Expect the whole process to be infuriating, I imagine you have been going through the process for quite a while now and want this to be it, the resolution, but it won't be.

All that will probably happen is you will get a judge thats a bit too full of themselves, riding the wave of power dealing with small claims gives them, and they will (thinly veiled as being fair) come out with some frankly absurd questions, which will undoubtedly infuriate you to the point of getting angry.

This is the important part that has been said before... don't get angry!! Expect nothing useful to come of the day and if it does, then great. I made the mistake of expecting things to be resolved when in fact all that happened was I was asked some stupid questions that could have easily been asked via letter and was told emphatically that I was stupid for using the system without a lawyer (even though the whole small claims system is specifically designed to allow individuals to use it without expensive legal aid...) and that I was even more stupid for having taken advice (which turned out to be incorrect) from staff within the county court.. man I could have punched that judge.

So yeah, it'll be annoying, nothing will get resolved and you'll undoubtedly leave feeling like you have had half your day wasted. But you have to do it in order to get a resolution, so bite your tongue and just nod or shake your head as required.

Hope you win :)
 
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