Trial Question.

[Help Needed]

I had a trial started 10 days ago, but because it was nearing 5pm the judge adjourned it to Monday.

The trial is for Non-Payment of Rent.

The reason I didn't pay is because there was no heat or hot water most of the time.

There were two previous trials, one for apartment condition that was since I fixed myself, the other for other conditions that were not fixed even though the first order directed them to. The first of these was by same judge as is now presiding.

This Trial: The LL Attorney and one person who as far as I know was in charge of accounting and not management of the building came to trial.

I started questioning her on the number of days we didn't have heat or hot water and she said it was only once a month or so. She went month by month and took a note of it, actually he took the lead asking her month by month. THIS WAS A COMPLETE LIE.
Trial was adjourned at this point.

I didn't give testimony yet.

Prior to the beginning of a trial I handed the judge a printout with 250 open violations for the building, but he sort of brushed it off saying that only one of them was for heat or hot water.
I also handed him a list of over 300 complaints made over the last year or so, most of which were for heat or hot water. But he didn't appear swayed by it.
He gave me back both documents. And then the trial started.

When the trial resumes this Monday does it make sense for me to not continue to ask her questions, as she is clearly lying and instead to show the judge the letter we received from another person from the management telling us to call him if there are any building issues.
And tell the judge that she lied last time when she stated that the letter states to contact the management and not that person specifically? The point would be to show that she was never involved with any building issues and was never contacted regarding them, thus her account of how many days we didn't have heat/hot water is not believable.

Also does it make sense to bring two witnesses with me who live in the building who will testify to the fact that we didn't have heat or hot water for a very long time? One has a current hp action against the building for problems in the apartment. The other has a non-payment proceeding just like me for no heat and hot water.

Thank you so much.

[TenantNet]

Non-pay for RS tenant. I assume you're Pro Se.

As with any problems with conditions, I hope you filly documented the condition and have a paper trail. As for fixing things yourself, it sometimes can not be a good idea and might make things worse (legally).

Of course the LL will lie and so will the LL's employees. That's why you need documentation. You can also question the employee's credibility and memory, and most importantly if she has direct first-hand knowlege of the HHW outage. I would think that is a very important thing to do. If she does not work at the building itself, then she has no direct knowledge of when the heat/HW was on or off.

If there are/were 250 violations, I hope you put them in your answer as defenses and counterclaims, at least those building-wide and in your apartment.

300 complaints, well it might depend if they are yours or not. I would think you would introduce them during your time. But you might have to deal with evidentary issues (you'll have to look elsewhere on that).

He might have just been saying it was the wrong time to introduce them.

Yes bring witnesses, they can testify to their own knowlege - and corroberate your testimony.

Do you have HPD violations? Consider subpoenas to HPD and the inspector. Letters you wrote, phone logs, logs of the inside/outside temp and so on. Anything and everything to document the problem and the LL's response.