A friend of mine is a mechanic and recently done a private job at his work out of hours,which was all arranged etc. whilst doing the job (new clutch) the head gasket blew and now the car is "knackered" , this was all explained to the person who's car it was and now they are trying to say that the mechanic broke it by ragging it up the road and are now taking him to small claims court. Can they do that?

They sure can. It will be up to the judge to decide what is/was really going on. Although its not normal to x-ray an engine its also not very common for a headgasket to blow out of the blue either. There is usually either signs that it is happening or going to happen or there is a direct reason for it.

The judge will just have to listen to testimony and figure it out from there. The person who's car was affect has every right to take it to court.

It was a 2002 vectra which has a chain and that is what's snapped so more like a cam belt I should have said,sorry.

The persons who's car it was also admitted that he had no oil in it either!

It was a 2002 vectra which has a chain and that is whats snapped so more like a cam belt i should of said,sorry.

The persons whos car it was also admitted that he had no oil in it either!

Again. The owner has the right to take it to court. The bottom line is that if what your saying is true then its not likely they will win. But they still have the right to file.

Why would any sane person not keep oil in their car? And how could a clutch job turn out to be a broken cam belt? The judge will rule against the owner of the car and rule in favor of the mechanic.

Quite honestly I think this may be out of the reach of the small claims court as the car's engine would be very expensive to fix. The judge will probably refer the case to a higher court.

Quite honestly I think this may be out of the reach of the small claims court as the car's engine would be very expensive to fix. The judge will probably refer the case to a higher court.

Depending on the condition of the car a 2002 Vauxhall Vectra is probably worth less than 3000 GBP, so likely would be a small claims court matter.