Wrongs (Public Contracts) Act 1981

the averment of the claimant or applicant made in writing and served on the defendant as hereinafter provided shall be prima facie evidence of the matter or matters averred;

paragraph (a) shall apply to any matter so averred although—

evidence in support or rebuttal of the matter averred or of any other matter is given by witnesses; or

the matter averred is a mixed question of law and fact; or

the matter averred is evidentiary only;

any evidence given by witnesses in support or rebuttal of a matter so averred shall be considered on its merits and the credibility and probative value of such evidence shall neither be increased nor diminished by reason of this section;

an averment shall not be evidence for the purposes of this section unless a copy of the paper containing the averment has been served on the defendant in the same manner as the process requiring his attendance before the Court;

service of a copy of the document containing the averment may be proved in the same manner as service of the process commanding the defendant's attendance before the Court;

the Court may, if the amendments can be made without hardship or injustice to the defendant, allow such amendments to be made in the writing containing an averment as appear to be desirable or to be necessary to enable the real question in dispute to be determined;

if in any such case the Court considers the defendant has been misled by the form of the averment it may refuse to allow the amendments or adjourn the hearing of the case for such period as it thinks fit and make such order as to the costs of the adjournment as it thinks proper.