Freeths is to supervise the design and implementation of a UK Government compensation scheme aimed at the original Post Office scandal victims. The national firm has been appointed by the Government to act on behalf of over 500 sub-postmasters who brought the landmark civil group action against the Post Office. Until earlier this year, this […]
A cross-party group of MPs has called for Government safeguards after Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) won the contract to oversee the Post Office compensation scheme. It comes two years after HSF came in for criticism over its involvement in the failed Lloyds Bank scheme, set up to compensate victims of the £245m HBOS Reading loan […]
The Post Office should not be able to hide behind legal privilege while being investigated under the Horizon IT statutory inquiry, it was argued at a preliminary hearing today. Inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams heard submissions on whether it’s necessary to investigate the role of in-house and external lawyers in the Post Office scandal, particularly […]
Mishcon de Reya, Eversheds Sutherland and Morrison & Foerster are among the law firms and chambers representing core participants in the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry. Organisations and individuals designated as core participants in the statutory inquiry have been granted the right to appoint a legal representative, who can make opening and closing statements on […]
How a legal team took on the might of the Post Office to put right one of the biggest miscarriages of justice the UK has ever seen
Freeths secured victory for more than 550 former Post Office workers this week as its longstanding group litigation resulted in a settlement for the claimants. Mr Justice Fraser was highly critical of the Post Office in his lengthy verdict stating that its approach to the case amounted to “bare assertions and denials that ignore what […]
Womble Bond Dickinson has failed in its attempt to recuse the judge overseeing a lawsuit brought against the firm’s client The Post Office. The Lawyer reported last month that Womble Bond Dickinson had applied to recuse Justice Peter Fraser, on the basis that the first ruling suggested he had formed an opinion on matters which […]
Womble Bond Dickinson has submitted an application to recuse the judge overseeing the group action case against its clients, the Post Office. The latest trial, in which postmasters blame accounting errors on the Post Office’s IT system, has been suspended until April 3. This was the second of four trials in Bates & Ors v […]
The Post Office, represented by Womble Bond Dickinson, has lost a landmark ruling in the first of four cases related to alleged electronic failures at the company that resulted in postmaster job losses and convictions for false accounting. In the first significant judgment concerning the contractual relationship between the Post Office and its agents, Justice […]
Public interest cases take centre stage this year, with Uber and the NHS among those to have their day in court. Meanwhile, rows over Harvey Weinstein and Brexit wait in the wings