Defamation: The first thing you need to do is find out if your small claims court hears defamation claims. You are preparing to defend against three claims and that means you have too much to learn in a short time. If you can reduce the number of claims, you should do so.
If the defamation claim will be heard, you better be sure that nothing you wrote will qualify as defamation and no one here can tell you that without seeing it in it’s original context. If the content is still on line and you pm the url to me, I will look at it.
An accusation of “incompetence” is strictly opinion, unless it comes from someone qualified as an expert in the field in question.
If, when calling the car guy a scam artist, you published the facts surrounding your transaction with the guy, then you offered an opinion, not a statement of fact. That is not defamation.
Retraction statutes only apply to media and I don’t think your site would be considered media. I could be wrong on that point.
The theory behind a retraction statute is that the same people that read today’s erroneous report in a newspaper are likely to see the retraction a few issues later. In private defamation cases, since no one knows who heard the defamation or how they heard it, there is no way to measure the value of any given retraction. Thus, the court does not easily determine the value of a retraction in a non-media case.
A retraction has to be carefully written so as not to admit guilt, but it is free and when in doubt it’s the right thing to do.
Fraud: To prevail in a fraud claim your opponent will have to prove you never intended to pay for his services. Does he have some way to prove that? If not, all you have to do is testify that you intended to pay a reasonable price for acceptable work. Unless he has some evidence to defeat that, he loses the fraud claim because “intent to defraud” is an element of the claim.
Breach of contract: From what you’ve written here, there was no valid contract. He promised to do the work and the amount of payment was left open. He didn’t give you an estimate? If you made no specific promise of “consideration”, there was no contract to breach or the contract was too ambiguous to enforce.
He may fabricate an estimate to try and convince the court there was a valid contract. Have you requested copies of any such documentation he plans to use in your request for docs?
They filed a Motion to Allow Discovery and the Judge signed it.
Can I oppose the motion, and if so is there a particular form?
When the motion was filed, you had a given period in which to oppose it. You didn’t oppose it so the Judge had no reason to deny it.
The order says It is ordered that the Defendant be and hereby is allowed to propound the Interrogatories and Requests for Production attached to said Motion to the Plaintiff.
So they are allowed to take discovery. There are numerous objections available to you. Consider each question or request and if there is an objection that fits the situation, use it.
See the following:
http://www.falseallegations.com/ans-ints.htm AND
http://underground.musenet.org:8080/~bkort/bedford/interrog.html for more examples, google answers to interrogatories
You need to research the various reasons to object and use them where you see fit.
Do I really have to provide him with these materials? Can I simply state that he has the Burden of Proof as he is is the one making the claim?
He is entitled to ask you to provide anything that may support his claim or his defense to your claim that he cannot obtain EXCEPT through you.
I do plan on filling out the Interrogatories and Requests for Production though as I feel overall they help my case.
If you have nothing to hide you should be able to answer the questions safely. Make your answers as short as possible. Don’t explain anything; just answer the question as it was asked. This is not the place to plead your case. The more you say in these sworn answers, the more you help opposing counsel twist your words against you.
sent it back to them, through the courts, as my Motion for Discovery and Interrogatories and Requests for Production.
Through the court? This guy is represented by counsel and all discovery requests should be sent directly to counsel. The court doesn’t want any part of the discovery going on between you two. Discovery documents are not usually filed with the court. I doubt if the court will send the documents on. If you haven’t sent a copy to opposing counsel, you need to do so.
If the guiy i I am retired...and he is trying to run a business so I am guessing he won't much like that time drain.
He’s hired an atty who may have convinced him that YOU will end up reimbursing him for any legal fees. He won’t be spending any time, his atty. will.
I have heard from 4-5 other people that have personally had the same "scam" type of treament. Work done without giving estimates...then charging 2 to 3 times what they felt (and later found out to be true) the work was worth. They are my expert witnesses.
These are not expert witnesses. An expert witness is someone that has a level of expertise in some area that the common person does not have. You may be able to get these witnesses in the “show a pattern” but you can expect opposing counsel to object to allowing them in because they have no first hand knowledge of YOUR case.
An expert witness in your case, would be an individual with sufficient credentials to convince the court that he knows what he’s talking about when he gives his opinion of the quality of the defendant’s work. Another expert witness would be someone that is able to attest to what is a reasonable and customary charge for the work defendant performed.
You have to jump through some hoops to qualify someone as an expert for the court.
You probably have what you need to prove your case and to defend against all of the counter claims, but if you don’t know exactly what you have to prove, you will lose.
You have to know and understand the elements of each claim as well as the possible defenses to each claim. Then you have to know the rules of evidence or you will be sitting there with a smoking gun that you are not allowed to present to the court.
