The Novice Guide to Court hearings: part 2. Preparation

This Saturday Slot post is the second part of my weekly series of posts on Court Hearings (in the UK). You can see the others >> here.

Preparation for court hearings

In all court hearings, preparation is key. Do not assume that you will be able to ‘wing it’. You won’t. Or if you do, you will be very lucky. Don’t chance it. Prepare meticulously.

1. Directions.

In many cases there will have been a preliminary hearing where the Judge will have ordered you to comply with ‘directions’ for the case. Or you may just have been sent a court order setting out directions. These will be things like serving witness statements and documents on your opponent.

It is very important that you do this. Don’t think that is is ‘clever’ to a ambush the other side with a document they have never seen before. All that will happen is that you will seriously annoy the Judge and you may not be allowed to use it.

If the directions included filing and serving the type of document known by lawyers as a ‘pleading’, for example the statement of claim, defence, counterclaim etc, then you MUST get this done within the time limits given. If you don’t, at best you risk being ordered to pay costs to the other side, at worst you may lose the case.

2. Documents.

Make sure that all documents relevant to the case, or to your hearing if this is not a trial hearing, have been disclosed to the other side, and that you have adequate copies with you.

You may also want to prepare some documents to help the court at your hearing. For example, chronologies, schedules of payments due, and the like. Anything that is helpful and will save time, will give you added brownie points. Judges are very hot on saving time.

3. Witnesses.

If there are any witnesses, other than yourself, you must make sure that they will be able to attend the hearing. If you have served a witness statement, don’t assume that this means that the witness does not need to attend the hearing – it doesn’t. They will need to be there to confirm their witness statement on oath and be cross examined on it.

If you think that there is any danger that your witness may not be able to attend, for example if their employer is unhappy about their taking a day off work, arrange to serve a witness summons on them. The court staff will tell you how to do this (and the court rules are here).

4. Bundle of documents

For large complex hearings, much of solicitors time is taken up in preparing bundles of documents for court hearings. Even for a small claims trial it is important to have one, and the Judge will thank you. If possible, see if you can try to agree what goes in it with your opponent, but if this is impossible, do a bundle anyway. This should:

Have a front sheet with the case heading with parties names and case number, and the date of the hearing
An index of the documents (for a small bundle this can go on the front sheet) giving the page numbers so they can be found easily during the hearing
Have all documents in chronological order
Contain all documents relevant to the case, including the court paperwork such as ‘pleadings’ and court orders
Have every page clearly numbered

You will need to have at least four copies – one for the Judge, one for you, one for your opponent, and one for any witnesses

Note that bundles are mostly used for trials, so you won’t normally need one for other types of hearing (such as ‘directions’ hearings and the like). Also, where all relevant documents have already been attached to the court paperwork (as is often the case in possession hearings, particularly claims against squatters) a bundle will generally be unnecessary.

5. Your presentation at court

Once you have all your paperwork sorted, you need to plan out what you are going to say at the hearing. Don’t write it out in a speech though, do lists of points you want to make, so you won’t forget anything. Perhaps put them on cards. Have a spare copy of the bundle and highlight important points you will want to refer to. Make it easy to find them in the bundle by using yellow stickers.

I discuss in some detail the way you should present your case, and the things you will need to prove to the Judge, in part 5 of this series, so you will need to read that carefully also, when doing your preparation.

Make sure you have pen and paper with you. You will need quite a lot of paper to make notes (lawyers use a special type of notebook called a ‘Counsels Notebook‘ (affiliate link)), and make sure that you have several pens, just in case they run out of ink at the crucial moment (which they will do if you only have one).

Making notes of everything that is said at the hearing is crucial, so if you find writing hard, you may want to consider taking someone with you just to take notes. For example if you have a secretary who does shorthand, take her along. You may need to ask permission to take her in with you, but the Judge should not object to your having someone there to keep notes.

Have you had to prepare for a court hearing? Do you have any tips for readers? Are there things which, during a court hearing, you really wished you had done more preparation for?

Next week I will be looking at what you should do when you arrive at court.