Whyyyy are we waayyting…?

After being told by the judge himself he had aimed to get his Common Issues trial judgment out by the end of January we were then told, without warning or explanation, it would out “not before” the end of February.

We were then told, again by the judge, that he was still:

“on track, more or less, to have [the judgment] ready to be distributed in draft by the end of February. There may be one or two days slippage but that remains the achievable aim subject to any unforeseen events.”

It is now the 1 March.

Apparently the judge’s clerk has told the JFSA that the Common Issues trial judgment will now not be handed down until the week commencing 11 March, which eagel-eyed secret emailers will have noticed is also the first week of the second trial in this group litigation – the “Horizon” trial.

This means the judgment will arrive at least three months after the trial it pertains to ended, six weeks after it was scheduled and during another trial which it can’t help but have an effect on.

I asked my High Court mole what he thought was going on and he told me that three months is actually pretty quick by judicial standards. Some judgments, he said, especially in complex cases, can take a year to be handed down. There is, for instance, a judgment still outstanding on a case which ended last March into whether shareholders were misled by Lloyds into supporting its acquisition of HBOS. So there.

At least when the judgment is handed down we can all be in court to hear it. And if you can’t make it to court to hear it, I will be able to live tweet what is said, and then I can post the full judgment up on www.postofficetrial.com, which is what your funds have very kindly allowed me to do.

On a personal note, I’m going to Hanover next week and I am rather glad the judgment isn’t going to drop whilst I’m away, but I do appreciate that the wait for some of the claimants must be agonising.

**********

On other matters I am getting very bored of photographing the Rolls Building to illustrate my blog pieces, and I there are only so many Post Offices near me.

I wonder if you have a spare moment, I could entreat you to go and take a couple of photographs of the Post Office branding at a Post Office near you and send the photos to me so I can use them in this blog. I’m looking for clear, full-frame (or nearly full frame) shots of the Post Office logo (in whichever iteration you find it).

It’s important that the Post Office sporting the logo cannot be identified so it’s okay to have some background (or foreground if you want to be arty), so long as it cannot be identified.

If you have a Post Office logo on a letterhead – why not photograph that? Or a badge? Or mug?. Again – no identifying info behind or in front of it, unless of course, it is the Post Office’s own postal address.

Just send the jpegs to me by replying to this email adding a note that you are happy for me to use your image on the blog website, this mailout and social media in perpetuity. I would be most grateful.

**********

So – there we go. Second trial starts a week on Monday. First judgment comes in less than two weeks. This blog will start cranking up on 11 March to bring you all the news – and hopefully it will have some nice pictures, taken by you, to illustrate it.

Have a great weekend!

Nick