This Saturday Slot post is the sixth part of my weekly series of posts on Court Hearings (in the UK). You can see the others >> here.
Judgment time
So. You have finished making your presentation about your case. You have cross examined your opponents witnesses and you think you have picked up on all the points you wanted to make. It is now over to the Judge.
All the time you have been presenting and speaking, the Judge will have been making notes. He will have been assessing you and assessing your evidence. He now needs to come to a decision.
- Sometimes he will want to be on his own for a while to think about it. In which case you will have to go out to the waiting room and wait for the Usher to call you back in again.
- Sometimes, in a complex case, the Judge will ‘reserve judgement’, which usually means you will have to come back on anther day to hear the result.
- However, in the vast majority of cases, the Judge will have made his mind up while the case was ongoing, and will be ready to go as soon as the parties have finished what they want to say.
The Judge’s judgment speech
Before saying which party has won, the Judge will make a little speech. Generally he will start by saying what the case is about. He will then summarise the evidence that has been presented to him and give his opinion (note that, in the tradition of court courtesy, he will rarely say bluntly that he thinks someone has been lying – he will generally say he ‘prefers’ the evidence of Mr A to that of Mr B).
It is ESSENTIAL that you write as much as possible of this down. If you are unhappy about the decision the Judge comes to, and take legal advice after the hearing, the first thing the solicitor will ask you is the reasons the Judge gave for coming to the decision he did. If you can’t tell them, then it will be very difficult for them to advise you. So write it all down. (Most hearings are recorded and you may be able to get a transcript if necessary, however this could take some time, so it is always best to have your own notes.)
Once he has finished summarising the case and the evidence, the Judge will then say what his decision is.
Judgment
The Judge won’t always give the winning party everything that they have asked for. And in some cases, where there are a lot of different items (for example in a claim for damages against a tenant) he may agree to award compensation for some items but not for others. Or he may agree to make an award, but the sum awarded will be less than the figure claimed.
Once the Judge has made his decision, there is nothing you can do about it. It is no good trying to explain to him that he is wrong. You had your chance to do that earlier. Only in very, very, rare cases, where the Judge has clearly been under a massive misapprehension (and he accepts this) will you have any chance of changing his mind, and frankly I have never heard of this happening.
Once he has announced his decision there are a number of other things which will need to be decided.
Time for payment
In a financial claim, the Judgment will set out a date by which payment must be made (and this is the earliest date when the winner can issue enforcement proceedings). The Judge will generally want to talk to the defendant about his financial circumstances before he decides on what this period will be. However it is unlikely to be more than 28 days or at most six weeks into the future.
Often the Judge will make an order for payment by installments. However he will only do this if he feels that the installments are of a sum which the defendant can actually afford. Often judgment creditors are outraged at the miserly monthly payments which the defendants are ordered to pay. Again though, there is nothing you can do about this.
The significance of an installment order is that so long as the defendant keeps up the payments, you cannot use any of the court enforcement procedures. However if the defendant misses a payment, the whole lot falls due.
Time for possession
If you are a landlord and have followed the advice given in my do-it-yourself kits, you will have used a mandatory ground for possession. In which case the Judge will not be able to delay the date for possession more than six weeks from the date of the hearing.
If you have obtained possession under a discretionary ground however, the Judge can ‘suspend’ the order so long as the defendant does or does not do something – generally this will be paying the rent arrears by installments. Again, you will not be able to enforce the order and get vacant possession while the suspended order is in force.
Costs
For big complex cases costs can be huge, and often there can be long complex hearings just about the costs. There is a whole profession of legal costs draftsmen who specialise in this work. However for the sort of cases we are talking about, costs are going to be far less significant.
Some important points:
First – costs are always in the discretion of the Judge. Although generally the winning party will get costs, if the Judge considers that they have behaved badly in some way, he may say that he will not award costs, or in very rare cases can even award costs to the losing party.
Second – you may need to remind or ask the Judge to deal with costs. It is not something he will do automatically.
Third – for many types of hearing, all you will get is fixed costs plus the court fee. And the fixed costs will generally only be awarded if you have used a solicitor. Which means you may only get the court fee.
Fourth – for small claims trials you can usually get your own costs of traveling to the court (including parking) but the Judge will expect you have have receipts to prove what you have paid. Make sure therefore that you have these with you. You may also be able to get an award to compensate you for having to take time off work – again subject to proof. Get your employer to write a letter for you about this.
Finally – for the interim type of hearing discussed in part 4, the Judge will often order that costs be ‘in the case’. This means that they will fall to be decided by the Judge at the end of the case. Which means in turn, that if you win at trial, you need to remind the Judge about this and get him to make an assessment.
Don’t get too worked up about costs. Sadly, many judgments go unpaid, and often the winner will be lucky to get his judgement paid at all. In particular landlords evicting for arrears of rent will rarely see any of the judgment debt paid. Sad but true.
Before you leave the courtroom
Make sure you have the details of the award written down correctly. If you are not sure, ask the Judge to repeat it.
Check also that you have all your documents and other possessions. If you have handed something to the Judge that you need back, remember to ask him for it. Try not to leave anything in the room, as if you do, you may have to wait some time if there is a long hearing in there after you.
How does this post match your experience at court? Do you always try to get costs or do you think it is a wasted effort?
In the next and final installment, I will be looking at the aftermath of the hearing.
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