Hey secret emailers!

I had a very useful conversation with a lawyer the other day – well – in fact a couple of useful conversations. This is why:

Over the last few weeks I have spoken to and received correspondence from a number of people I am simply not qualified to help.

Some of them were litigation claimants, others were people who had heard about the judgment and told me the same thing happened to them, or their relatives, when they were running post office branches.

What to do?

They were all asking what to do or who they should be contacting.

From my initial enquiries it seems that post-litigation there are arrangements falling into place between Freeths, the JFSA and the Post Office which may or may not suit those who are wondering about taking their next steps.

Freeths, I think, are no longer able to take any legal action against the Post Office, and the JFSA are focusing on lobbying MPs rather than doing any more legal stuff.

For some, that might be a problem.

If, for instance, you think you might have a case against the Post Office and you weren’t a claimant, you might be wary of contacting the Post Office to sort it out without your own representation.

If you are a criminalised Subpostmaster and think you might have a case for malicious prosecution or similar, who is going to represent you for that? It’s not obvious.

Also if you are a claimant annoyed at the money you’re going to get from the settlement you’re going to get, could you sue Fujitsu for more? Or the NFSP?

Enter Stephen

To discuss this I had a chat with the nice Stephen Lewis, a partner at the legal firm Ward Hadaway and a secret emailer! Hello Stephen.

Stephen has been following the ins and outs of the High Court case very closely. One of his current team has a brother who is a Subpostmaster in dispute with the Post Office. That Subpostmaster pointed me in Stephen’s direction.

Stephen shares my concern that with Freeths unable to act for any Subpostmasters (against the Post Office at least) in future, and the JFSA more focused on moving into a public affairs phase of its campaign, there will be people who feel they have been dealt a terrible hand yet don’t know where to turn.

I am not recommending Stephen – I don’t know about the quality of his or his team’s work and apart from two phone calls (in which he came across as thoroughly knowledgable and sympathetic) I don’t know him from Adam. He might not be the right person for you. I can simply point you in his direction as someone who is willing to have a chat with you about your situation and possibly, possibly provide you with an option going forward. Other lawyers are available, but you’re going to have to find them yourselves.

Stephen is aware that I am going to start pointing correspondents in his direction and we agreed that I would put his details in a secret email so that anyone who feels they have a case or a grievance against the Post Office or Fujitsu or whoever going forward can discuss their options. So:

Stephen’s email is: Stephen.Lewis@wardhadaway.com

and his phone number is: 0330 137 3334

If you do speak to him, let me know how you get on.

Inside Out

Last week Inside Out South broadcast an update on the situation of two now nationally famous claimants in the litigation – Jo Hamilton and Seema Misra. Seema and Jo were the focus of my first report on Inside Out South in 2011.

You can watch the initial 2011 broadcast here.

You can watch last week’s film on the BBC iplayer here.

I’m so grateful to Jo and Seema (and Seema’s husband Davinder – who first told me about this scandal) for letting me film them in their homes and get a measure of how they’re feeling now.

I am also extremely grateful to my producer Rich George who did a wonderful job of letting all the interviews breathe. This really brings home the emotional impact of this story – so often left behind when we all get caught up in the process and procedure side of things.

File on 4

I’m delighted to tell you there is another Post Office documentary in the works – this time on Radio 4. It will go out at 8pm on Tuesday 11 Feb, and is presented by the superb Hayley Hassall. I have been helping out in the background and I know lots of secret emailers have contributed to this one. I think it’s going to be a goodie.

Criminal Cases Review Commission

The CCRC have said that on top of the 35 Subpostmaster cases they have now been dealing with for nearly 5 years, they have “recently” taken on “around 20” more.

It is not clear how these 20 cases have arisen – were they referred to them by the Post Office? Or have they approached the CCRC since the litigation ended or is it a mixture of both.

Either way – despite sitting on the initial 35 cases for 5 years, the CCRC has now decided it’s going to make a decision on referring all or some of the 50+ cases to the Court of Appeal in March.

Parliament

I’ve had a couple of useful conversations with MPs recently. Kevan Jones has got the bit between his teeth as has Gill Furniss, the shadow postal services minister, who recently asked a question in parliament about the recent litigation and what the government is going to do about an inquiry.

Also this week Rachel Reeves tweeted that she had been re-elected as Chair of the BEIS select committee as part of a tweet thread listing her committee’s achievements in the previous parliament.

I retweeted this and added:

“Congrats to @RachelReevesMP – looking forward to seeing if, now the #postofficetrial has concluded, @CommonsBEIS sets up an inquiry into how @PostOffice treated Subpostmasters, misled MPs, covered up IT deficiencies + let its investigations and prosecutions branch go rogue.”

Ms Reeves (or at least, whoever runs her social media account) read and “liked” the above, which suggests the Post Office is at least on her radar.

If you are involved in the campaign to get a government or public or judge-led inquiry into the Post Office and have been lobbying your MP – do forward them the secret emails or ask them if they would like to be added to the ever-growing gang of secret emailers.

I have a feeling this year the story will become unavoidable. Lots of journalists and MPs are going to be bringing it to the wider attention of the country. Then, at last, we might be able to start trying to hold people to account for their part in ruining so many lives.

Yours with thanks

Nick