Not the headline I expected to be writing after going through the Reasons for the High Court refusing the Post Office’s application to appeal the Common Issues (first) trial judgment.

But it’s there on the final page, in the final paragraph. You can read my fisking of the Refusal here and you can read the document in full here.

As well as reminding us this litigation is going to go on forever, the judge also points out that the Post Office doesn’t seem to know what the function of an appeal is, which suggests to me that the Post Office legal team are either idiots (unlikely) or under instruction from their clients to waste everyone’s time and spend as much money as possible in the hope the claimants fold. If anyone’s got a better reason, write it on the back of a postcard and send it in. Or perhaps, hit reply to this email.

Where do we go from here

Off to the Court of Appeal, of course! You may remember that on the basis of the above Refusal the Post Office applied to the Court of Appeal to appeal the Common Issues judgment. The Court of Appeal initially rejected it on grounds of length and gave the Post Office until 4pm on Friday 12 July to resubmit their application with a skeleton argument of no more than 50 pages.

This they have done, and, excitingly, it has just come into my possession. I thought I’d get the High Court refusal up first and deal with the Court of Appeal stuff when I next get a free moment.

Other news

I was sent a few plaintive tweets by a claimant and contributor to this blog, Bal Gill, who was in the process of being sectioned. He has subsequently been tweeting me from a secure unit in Oxfordshire. I was a little concerned as I didn’t really know what to do. I have subsequently been assured that Bal’s legal team are aware of his situation and I am told that another claimant has been to visit Bal, who is doing as well as can be expected. Bal wrote about the Post Office’s role in his mental instability here. I hope he gets better soon. I am sure he would be very touched by the number of people who contacted me sharing their concern and offering to help. I understand Bal is getting the medical treatment he needs and the legal guidance he might require, but I am assured he is safe. His tweets aren’t making much sense at the moment, though.

If you haven’t read my report of the final day of the Horizon trial please do. It’s my attempt at summarising the several million words which have been written and spoken about the Horizon computer system since the trial began.

Thanks

Profound thanks as ever to those of you who take the time to write and forward me emails and documents. Your comments and information are invaluable and I apologise if I have not had time to respond directly recently. All correspondence is read and filed, and if needs be, acted on. Please keep it coming.

As well as the Post Office’s Grounds and Skeleton to look at I’ve got a few more bits and bobs to put out over the next few weeks, including more on the strange performance targets document mentioned in last week’s Private Eye and a curious letter from the Post Office about the status of the NFSP. I’ll also do a my sums to see how the crowdfunding pot is looking. Given we’ve got no trial until next year, there’s no real point in doing another round of fundraising until then, however much cash is left.

Right – time to go. I have to deal with my day job, which today looks like reporting another murder on London’s streets.

Stay safe, my friends, and enjoy what you’ve got while you have it.

Nick