[Lyn]

There are several issues in these cases, not least that they both let the matter proceed too far. It sounds like they must have provided joinder so they were both playing under the court’s jurisdiction. Also, there seems to be a matter of inequitable status of the parties, unless the first is a business to business case, which is a separate matter again. The first matter, the magistrate sounds like they were practicing from the bench? There was a failure to rebut the magistrate or lawyer’s claim that ‘that form of payment was not acceptable’ is an admission that it is indeed a form of payment, whether they agree to it or not. Would it not have been preferable to deal with this by notice before it got to court? These are the sort of cases the public highlight to illustrate and warn the plebs from trying this tactic because they claim it doesn’t work.