VIC Notice of Discovery - do I need to handover or is this a lawyer tactic

[Cris]

We have received a complaint by the plaintiffs lawyers after we rear ended a taxi and within the documents we found out the car had already been repaired. After many days of going back and forth and not getting much response from our email requests regarding prove of work, receipts etc we were forced to file a Notice Of Defence as the 21 days had expired. We successfully filed the Notice of Defence in time. We were then advised by his lawyers that there was no value of us attending to see the car as if it goes to court our inspection would not hold up as we were not qualified and they advised us to get an independent assessors to inspect the car, we did this for us at our cost and we are now awaiting the report. At the time the plaintiff could not show us any invoices for proof of parts or products purchased and advised us that he would forward them to his lawyers and his lawyers could pass them on to us Now we have just received a Notice of Discovery to hand over all documents etc pertaining to this claim/complaint. The claim or complaint has not gone to court/ no hearing scheduled, we were advised by the Broadmeadows Magistrates court that we would be first referred to Mediation. My question is DO WE NEED to hand over all documents now? (we have 21 or 28 days from the Notice of defence) the court procedure act states something along the line of you can not serve a notice of discovery without a leave of court, so I'm not sure if I need or can file/serve them the same thing - or is this a Lawyers tactic? Do I file a Notice of Discovery on them to hand over everything we have asked of them - which they have not as yet given to us requests were made at the start of May the accident happened on 24/02/2018) or do I need to do something else. Please advise and many thanks

 

[kevin586]

Yes you will need to comply with the Notice of Discovery but you are entitled to see verified claims for money.

Request verification of all their claims, by providing you with true and certified copies of all claims.

If you have any pics of the damaged taxi I suggest you send them to 2-3 other repairs for an estimate to complete the repair in the photograph. This will give you some idea of how reasonable their bills for the repair of the taxi have been. Then you can compare them with the bills you receive.

Make them prove every claim they make and every cost they claim. If it were me I would serve a Notice of Discovery on them for every document they intend to rely on court to substantiate their claim.

Keep one thing in mind, a litigant cannot bring into the court and use a document they have failed to provide under the Notice of Discovery and that works bothways, So make sure you have a ist of every document they refer to in court so you tick it off your list. If they try to use a document not on your list then say Objection Your Honer, I have not been provided with a copy of this document and therefore I object to it use in this court .... or something similar.