Does the System Work

The true measure of whether a legal system is just and fair to all citizens of a country that the legal system serves, should be if a citizen can argue their case in a court on an equal basis to any other citizen, and be heard fairly. That also applies to a citizen arguing their case against another citizens solicitor. The outcome of a case is of no significance in terms of fairness or justice, if a citizen can not do this.

If a legal system requires a legal representative to argue a citizens case, for example, a citizen can not argue it fairly for themselves, then it must follow that the legal system must fail the basic test of fairness with a high probability of an unjust outcome. The system or process must therefore be questioned as to whether or not it s “fit for purpose”

There should be no burden of requirement other than a factual account of events that should be placed upon a citizen in representing their case. Solicitors frequently play games and rely of familiarity with judges and court officials to win a case. This has nothing to do with fairness or justice.

I have written about a court hearing that I had to attend on 6th September, 2013, in which it appeared to me from the judges attitude and comments to me, that he and the court believed that I was guilty of all the Applicant had claimed in this divorce case. I think I commented on the different treatment that the applicant’s solicitor received as compared to the treatment that I received from the deputy Judge. I objected to this at the time.

I raise this point again owing to a further development in this case and a development that the court and the claimants solicitors need to tread warily on. I felt that the first hearing was very one sided, however we may be into very difficult waters owing to a stunt pulled by the claimant and her solicitors.

We were all meant to file on the court and serve on each other any documents and statements that we wished to submit and rely on as evidence to our arguments by 27 September, 2013. I stayed up to 1.30 the morning of the 27th to complete my documents and then arranged for a same day courier to deliver my documents to all parties. Fully compliant with the court and judges orders. The court, nor I received any documents from the claimant or her solicitors. No explanation was received for this.

I wrote to the court 2nd October 2013 asking for the court to intervene in this and on the 3rd October 2013 I then received a classic letter and copy letter from the claimants solicitors, that I have every intention of sharing after this case is over. Without any apologies the letter requested of the court that an extension in time be granted for the applicant to file and serve her documentation owing to pressure of work on the solicitors part??????

There appears to be no concern by this solicitor that the applicant and he have all of my documentation, statements and evidence. They can now write and submit what ever they wish to counter my evidence and from what I saw at the first hearing, I know the court will allow it. The solicitor knew that already. Without knowing that he could break the rules and get away with it, he would not have pulled this stunt! The applicants case would have been destroyed owing to non filing and serving of documents.

Of course my case and my arguments have been dis-advantaged and the process is now incredibly unfair to me from this point on. There is no way that this process can now go forward fairly. This solicitor has given an undertaking to the court that my documents will not be looked at, an undertaking that I do not accept. He should re-read the letter he sent to the court and the letter sent to me, to understand why!

A valuation was also supposed to be done on the property that I currently live in and an extension in time has been requested from the court for this to be done. I should point out that I have not been asked by the solicitor if I am ok with this or if I am available this week for the valuation to be carried out within the time frame requested by the solicitor from the court. As it is I am away from Wednesday until Monday, so it is not going to happen. Had they asked!

So I can answer the question if or not any citizen, without legal representation can get a fair and just hearing in our courts and from my experiences to date, that is a big NO. I await to see if I am wrong and if the court and deputy judge find a pair, to remind this solicitor that his stunt has lost this case for his client and that she can claim from him. Yeah and pigs will fly.

I am mindful that should the deputy Judge actually take action against the solicitor, it could potentially be very unfair to the Applicant’s case, that is if the Applicant did in fact get her documents in to her solicitors on time?

From the tone of this case, the tone of the hearing on the 6th September 2013, the fact that the deputy judge made some astute comments and orders, during and following the hearing, lead me to believe that this was a calculated stunt by the solicitor in question, to gain an advantage.

If the court and I had been pre-advised that the document filing and serving process would be delayed, I could also have delayed which would have ensured fairness and process integrity. Simply put, as professionals we all operate diaries, event calenders, mail in/out and other company systems to ensure that we behave and conduct our business activities professionally.

Bearing in mind the above and the fact that the solicitor wrote that he was busy and then went off on annual vacation, this just could not happen as has said it has. Not possible! therefore dis-honest.

So again the question was can a citizen in this country get a fair and just hearing in our courts without representation and again it is NO. As soon as a solicitor resorts to stunts like the one outlined above in order to gain an advantage, he influences the outcome unfairly, and on this occasion potentially unjustly.

Win any way you can is not a sound basis to create a just and fair legal system and Judges should remind solicitors at every occasion how to conduct themselves within the process of the law.

The Cow of Justice – An analogy of how the law arrives at justice
I was talking some of this over with a friend, a retired judge of sorts and he gave me an analogy of the law as below, he acknowledges that very often the law does not work.

Imagine a cow (and right now I can) Pulling at the head you have the solicitors, Pulling on the tail you have the claimants and Pulling on the cow’s teats are the Judges. The teats are meant to dispense or serve justice.

My analogy would place the respective players differently
Holding the head would be the Judges, Hanging on to the tail are the Claimants, trying to avoid the cow sh*t as it fell and Pulling at the teats are the Solicitors, milking the Cow for all they could get out of it.

Eventually the poor cow would die owing to the judges hanging on to the cows head and forgetting, or not being strong enough, to direct the cow to eat. And that is how justice died!

A Ditty to the above
Hey diddle didle, the cow’s in the middle, the claimants hanging on to its tail
Were in search of the law the judge cried aloud,the solicitor said goody oh how can we fail
The claimant impressed by this austere declaration, he marvelled at people of such ilk
The judge looked around, the solicitor had gone, for he had run away with the milk!

On his way to the door, the solicitor fell to the floor, got covered in sh*t where he lay
The judge snorted out loud, he imagined a crowd and cried there will be no justice today
He declared a mis-trial, the claimant stunned in denial, cheered and shouted hiphip hooray