Court Action
Statements of Case The claimant and defendant must provide details of the claim and defence which they want to pursue. There are a number of documents and together they are called ‘statements of case’. The subsequent stages of the litigation (disclosure of documents, statements from witnesses of fact and reports from experts) involve the parties attempting to prove their claim or defence to the required standard which in civil cases is the balance of probabilities, or ‘more likely than not’. Statements of Truth Each statement of case must be verified by a statement of truth. This confirms that the person making the statement believes that the facts stated in the document are true. Statements of truth must also be signed in each witness statement and certain other documents filed in proceedings. A party who signs a statement of truth without an honest belief in the truth of the facts being verified could be found to be in contempt of court which, in extreme cases, is punishable by a custodial sentence. A failure to verify a document can mean that the party will be unable to rely on the document as evidence of any of the matters set out in it or that a statement of case is struck out. The statements of case must be sent to court (filed) and to the other parties (served).
6
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online