In previous articles I discussed how to bring a small claim through the small claims court and how to enforce an order or judgment once you have obtained it.

This article deals briefly with the preparation required for the hearing itself, should the case not be settled beforehand. As the small claims limit has increased to £10,000 it is likely to be the case that more claimants will be conducting these hearings in person.

You must prepare all of the documents you intend relying on at the hearing and disclose these to your opponent. Your opponent may wish to include documents of their own. This should be done in a list form.

For example, in a building dispute you will need to disclose the contract, photographs, plans, lists of works completed, list of any outstanding works, estimates or receipts relating to repairs, a valuation of the work done to date, etc. If it is a landlord and tenant claim you will need to set out a calculation of the amount of any rent alleged to be owed, showing the amounts received. In a road accident case you will need to prepare estimates for repairs, invoices for car hire costs, police accident report and any medical reports.

You will also want to give evidence about your claim at trial and this must be put into a written document called a Witness Statement. This must be disclosed to the court and exchanged with your opponent before the hearing.

For example, in a claim of a breach of contract you would need to set out a background to the claim, how you and the defendant know each other, what the defendant agreed to do and what went wrong, the chronology, the impact on your life and what you have tried to do to solve the problem.

Before the hearing note down, for your own use, the key facts you want to rely on so you can refer to them easily. This is referred to as a chronology It would be helpful to share that with the opponent and the judge.

Ensure you have all relevant paperwork in a folder and number the pages. The court likes parties to arrive with what is called the Agreed Bundle, which is all the documents you seek to rely on which have been agreed with the defendant. An advantage of the bundle is there is no dispute as to whether a document is admissible in evidence and you can refer to numbered pages to enable the judge to understand the issues involved with reference to the bundle.

If you are referring to documents in your witness statement you should cross refer the documents to their page number in the bundle.

It is unusual to use an expert witness in a small claim. Expert witnesses can range from surveyors to doctors to handwriting experts. If you want to use an expert then you need to notify the court in advance in what is called a Directions Questionnaire which is sent out by the court. There is a substantial costs advantage in both parties agreeing to use the same expert and the expert producing what is known as an agreed report. When you arrive at court both your opponent and the judge should have before them the agreed paginated bundle of documents comprising the chronology, the witness statements, the expert report and the supporting documents. Do not forget to bring your own set of papers.

In the next article I will discuss the hearing itself.