Update:
Well, attended court on Friday, the firm that was suing me sent a litigator rather than the solicitor that had screwed up. He asked if I was prepared to settle rather than going into the court, I told him I had a strong defence and was prepared to let a judge decide the outcome.
Then he produced a list of their costs in preparing their case – basically a cost schedule for 2 solicitors, so just short of £2 grand’s worth of work – and told me they’d be pushing for full costs. I said “erm… this is small claims track isn’t it? You’re only entitled to fixed costs for attending the hearing aren’t you? So shall we pop this in this wastepaper basket where it belongs?” The look on his face was priceless!
Waited for 2hrs and then the judge called everyone waiting into the courtroom. He said that due to a particularly busy schedule, most cases would be adjourned but we’d probably have to wait all day to find out.
So, the litigator goes and makes some phonecalls, comes back to me and says they’d settle for half the bill. I told him no, and explained that the most I had to lose was a couple of grand, but if judgement went in my favour, I’d be instructing a solicitor to sue them for professional negligence, so his firm had potentially a lot more to lose than me.
I explained that I would rather not lose another day’s pay to attend court again, so I’d make a contribution of £200 towards the court costs, dispersments etc, but it was to go on record that it was towards costs and not the invoices.
He pulled his face and told me it was an “unattractive offer”, but I told him that to pay any more would be contributing to the invoiced totals, and I wasn’t prepared to do that on principal.
He accepted and drew up a consent order there and then. So, I got the afternoon off to drive down to Surrey to watch the Olympic road race!
I think it was a moral victory of sorts, all I was fighting for was for the “debt” to be written off, but another day in court would have resulted in another day’s lost earnings.
Only problem I now face is that in my mind, I have a couple of extra grand in the bike fund pot!!!
Thanks again for all the advice, it wasn’t half as daunting as I thought.
😀