Archives :
Civil litigation
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The £1bn Disaster
I recently got a call from a parliamentary friend – not an MP, but someone who works with MPs. He pointed me in the direction of a website I had never come across before. It lists grants made by the government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS – which “owns” the Post Office)…
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Post Office CEO in the Hot Seat
The continued unwillingness of any Post Office executive, past or present, to be interviewed by broadcast journalists on the subject of the Post Office Horizon scandal speaks volumes. We hacks are therefore wholly reliant on MPs to do the job for us. Execs can refuse journalists’ interview requests with impunity. It is rather more difficult…
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“This guy should never be let near a witness-box again”
The above photo is of Dr Robert Worden, who was an expert witness for the Post Office in the Horizon trial, which was part of the Bates v Post Office group litigation. You can read about my experience of watching Dr Worden be cross-examined here, and you can read Mr Justice Fraser’s thoughts on the…
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Compensation, Compensation, Compensation
Tuesday 14 December 2021 was a busy day in Westminster during which three sources of compensation for three distinct groups of Subpostmasters were discussed in various parliamentary corners. At just after 9am yesterday morning the Business (Postal Affairs) Minister Paul Scully (left) published a written statement announcing the government was going to underwrite compensation for…
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Govt Reverts to “Full and final” Mantra
It seems the government has given up on trying (if it ever was) to find a way to offer proper compensation to the 555 claimants who settled with the Post Office for £57.75m in December 2019. As we know, £46m of that compensation was spent on lawyers and legal success fees with each claimant receiving…