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I had a cambelt replacement done in 2009 by a large, well known motor group. Recently my engine blew itself to pieces due to a catastrophic cambelt failure. My mechanic had a look and found that two bolts floating around in the cambelt cover. These bolts had worn a groove through the entire cambelt. This groove aside, the cambelt is showing only normal wear and has no signs of failure due to common wear and tear. Now these two bolts mustve been dropped during the cambelt replacement and never retrieved as two non-factory bolts were fitted in their place. I have a court hearing next week as the respondant is saying that they are not liable. To me, this is silly as the cambelt never would have failed then with such catastrophic consequences if the bolts were never left in my engine. I am just wondering (apart from the cambelt itself, all the broken parts of my engine and the invoice from my mechanic stating what they believe and stand by the cause of cambelt failure) what i could use to strengthen my case? Maybe a independent assessment of the cambelt to show that it only failed due to this motor groups negligence in work?

From a purely technical point of view, it seems that you have all the evidence you need. However, the difficulty may be proving who left those bolts there and if they would have floated around in the cambelt cover for 5 years without interfering with the cambelt. Other factors may be the mileage travelled in that time too.
If the dealership where the cambelt job was done is the only place that has worked on your car in the last 5 years, the arbitrator may find in your favour, however, if other mechanics have worked on it in the interim, you may have an uphill battle proving that this particular dealership is culpable.
The other issue may be that you took the car elsewhere to have the repair carried out as under the CGA, you must give the innitial repairer the opportunity to rectify the problem.
I don't know that any further independent assessment would strengthen your case.

Thanks for your quick response!
Over the 5 years, the bolts have worn down the cambelt slowly and it was only until they made their way through the cambelt and hit the teeth on the other side were they picked up and made the cambelt jump teeth and throw everything off and well...the rest is history.
There has been no work bar services done on my engine so they have been the only ones to fiddle with my cambelt. The other thing regarding the opportunity to rectify the issue, we called them before any repair work was done and they said it wasnt their problem - therefore we went ahead with the work as i need my car for work but this dealership is located in Taupo anyway and I now reside in Christchurch. Getting my car to Taupo so they could possibly fix it was out of the question.

But thanks for your help. Means I wont be wasting my time trying to get other assessments completed that wont help my case