Barrister Required for Civil Trial

The short version is that in November 2010 whilst the Claimant and Defendant were living together as partners, the Claimant bought the Defendant a motorcycle. At the time the Defendant was under the strong impression that it was bought as a gift.

In March 2011, the couple split and the Claimant asked for the motorcycle back claiming that she had in fact bought the motorcycle as an asset for her company. The company currently deals with IT management and consultancy and the Claimant is claiming that she was wanting to get into the business of motorcycle hire. She claims that the Defendant was aware of this from the outset.

Proceedings have been issued an a trial is due to take place on 17th Februrary at Huddersfield.

Defendant unfortunately without much legal knowledge has submitted an 88-page Defence of sorts and numerous other documents claiming that the claim put forward is fraudulent.

His Defence is based mostly on the fact that whilst the relationship was going on, there was never any claim from the Claimant to his family and friends that the bike was bought for the business. The V5 is in the Defendant’s name as well as any documents relating to the vehicle including insurance. The only document not in the Defendant’s name is the actual purchase invoice which the Defendant claims was put into the name of the company in order for the Claimant to claim back VAT, etc.

Also due to not having any legal representation and the stress of it all, he has not been pro-active with sticking to the Court timetable.

I met up with him just before Christmas and spent 7 hours going through all the paperwork to the best of my ability and eventually drafted a statement for him, P18 questions, List of Documents and Pre-Trial Checklist. His papers are an absolute mess.

I think that he does have prospects of successfully defending the claim provided that he can keep his composure at the trial.

I was thinking about attending the trial as McKenzie Friend but perhaps it would be more beneficial if a barrister could perhaps take the case on instead. The Defendant doesn’t have any means to pay so was hoping for a CFA?