Should you present "surprise evidence" before or during the court hearing?

I had the cops do a welfare check on a (now former) friend of mine (“Bruce”) because he texted me and said he was going to kill himself.

The cops put him on a 5150 (72-hour psychiatric) hold in the hospital. The hospital billed Bruce for 10K, and he thinks I should have to pay it because I shouldn’t have called the cops.

He must have forgotten that he sent me text messages, which I still have in my phone, where he clearly states that he feels suicidal and wants to shoot himself or jump off a building, etc.

I believe his text messages are my best chance at winning the case.

Should I send Bruce screenshots of his incriminating texts in an attempt to get him to drop the lawsuit before we go to court? All my friends are telling me to do this.

Or, should I wait until the court hearing to present the text messages? I think that is the best idea because . . .

In all likelihood, Bruce will not drop the case no matter what. He’s a paralegal, and he could have a few tricks up his sleeve that I don’t know about. I don’t want him to be able to prepare a rebuttal to all the evidence I’m going to use against him.

And, he gets flustered easily, especially when he has to think fast. He’s going to get very nervous trying to explain how he was “only joking” when he texted me saying he wanted to kill himself.

Since my court date is next week, I would appreciate getting your opinions on this! Thank you. (I promise not to sue any of you if you give me bad advice! LOL)