Fifteen members of a group called Fathers 4 Justice stormed the offices of solicitors Parker Bird in Huddersfield, England, citing the firm’s “major contribution in the pouring petrol on the flames in divorce and childcare cases”. Locking the door behind them, chanting and waving flags until police arrived, the men said they had bestowed a “Golden Petrol Can” award on the law firm and a spokesman said “We feel that many solicitors manipulate family law against fathers.” (“Angry fathers in law firm protest”, Huddersfield Daily Examiner, Feb. 26)(via Law.com). David Giacalone comments (Feb. 26): “I’m surprised this sort of protest hasn’t happened more often in the USA.”
Posts Tagged ‘United Kingdom’
Pancake race avoids cancellation
A British primary school cancelled its traditional Shrove Tuesday “pancake race”–where children run while flipping a pancake in a frying pan–when its liability insurer quadrupled its premium and demanded 25 marshals to line a 50-yard race route. Publicity about the plight caused another insurer to step in with a more reasonable premium, so long as the school limits the number of entrants and spectators. “A spokesman for the British Insurance Broker’s Association said the UK was an increasingly litigious society, and people wanted to cover their backs should an accident occur.” (“Pancake race beats policy problem”, BBC, Feb. 21) (via Jacobs). A Press Association reporter notes that the “growing compensation culture” in the UK has forced the cancellation of St. Patrick’s Day and Remembrance Day parades, as well as a Guy Fawkes bonfire. (Karen Attwood, “Cancellation Leaves Pancake Racers ‘Flipping’ Bemused”, PA News, Feb. 20).
“Gulf war syndrome: the legal case collapses”
United Kingdom: “An eight-year, multimillion pound legal battle by more than 2,000 veterans for compensation for Gulf war syndrome has collapsed because there is not enough scientific evidence to prove their case in court.” Although the government-aided Legal Services Commission is estimated to have spent around ?4m on the case, “a trawl by scientists through 10 years of research worldwide, overseen by the veterans’ lawyers and funded by the LSC, has found no evidence which establishes any specific cause for the range of health problems they suffer. … The collapse of the case comes only months after litigation by parents who blame the MMR vaccine for their children’s autism suffered a similar fate, also for lack of scientific evidence to back up their claims.” (see Dec. 29) (Clare Dyer, The Guardian, Feb. 5). Last year a lawsuit was filed in this country against chemical companies on behalf of Gulf War Syndrome sufferers: see Aug. 25. For more on the weakness of the scientific evidence ascribing GWS to chemicals in the environment during the first Iraq war, see Michael Fumento’s work.
“Junk mail ‘did not damage dachshund'”
Updating our Jan. 4 entry: “A [British] couple have lost a court case in which they claimed their dog had been partially paralysed jumping for a Safeway leaflet left hanging in their letterbox.” Retired company director Gordon Musselwhite and his wife Susan of Yealmpton, Devon “claimed ?2,906 in vets bills and legal expenses as a result of the alleged incident” but the grocery company, which is unrelated to the Safeway chain in the U.S., prevailed in a small claims court in Plymouth: “I do not find a suspended leaflet equates to negligence,” said the judge. (Ananova, Jan. 19)
A libel lawyer, R.I.P.
Once they’re dead, they can’t sue dept.: U.K.’s Guardian runs a rather rough obituary notice of Peter Carter-Ruck, an attorney who specialized in suing publications under Britain’s famously pro-plaintiff libel laws. The fun starts in the very first paragraph: Carter-Ruck “did for freedom of speech what the Boston Strangler did for door-to-door salesmen,” says a former colleague. According to this not exactly fraternal source, the late attorney’s “technique involved writing menacing letters to encourage socialites to sue for ‘imagined slights'” and he was once heard saying, of his lucrative practice, “I like to bill the clients as the tears are flowing.” (David Hooper, “The Carter-Ruck chill”, The Guardian, Dec. 23; Mark Oliver, “Carter-Ruck: a ‘chancer out for money'”, Dec. 23). The Telegraph printed a less hostile, and outstandingly colorful, account of Carter-Ruck’s life (Dec. 22) as well as a piece conveying reactions to the Guardian obit (Joshua Rozenberg, “Carter-Ruck’s partner puts case for the defence”, Dec. 24)
Another postal lawsuit in the UK
UK: “Postman sues customer who sent ‘too many’ letters”
“A postman is taking legal action claiming that he pulled a muscle because there were too many letters in a pillar box.” Alan Pugh claims that George Chryssides, a religious studies lecturer at Wolverhampton University, owes him compensation for posting about 270 envelopes containing a magazine Chryssides publishes for members of the British Society for the Study of Religions, and weighing around 50 pounds in all. “The Communication Workers’ Union is paying for the action and papers have been lodged with Birmingham County Court. Dr Chryssides said: ‘Claims of this kind raise the question of whether people can post their Christmas mail without redress.'” (Nick Britten, Daily Telegraph, Dec. 20)
UK: prolific race litigant restrained
Following up on an item from Jun. 12-15: “The reign of Britain’s most prolific race discrimination litigant could be over. After 82 employment tribunal cases, more than ?74,000 of public money and ?500,000 spent by companies defending themselves against him, Omorotu Francis Ayovuare has been stopped in his tracks by Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General. Lawyers for the Attorney General persuaded a High Court judge to issue a ‘restriction of proceedings order’ against Mr Ayovuare, whose litigiousness was revealed by the Telegraph in June. He must now get permission from a judge each time he wants to bring a new tribunal or continue an existing case.” American courts also have similar (though infrequently used) procedures by which judges can restrain inveterate litigants. (Adam Lusher, “Attorney General bans race litigant after 82 cases”, Daily Telegraph, Nov. 23).
U.K.: Greek tavernas shun dish-breaking
“The tradition of smashing plates at Greek restaurants is disappearing because of a ‘compensation culture’ which hundreds of owners fear will lead to them being sued by customers hit by flying crockery.” (Adam Lusher, “Smashing Greek custom goes to the wall”, Daily Telegraph, Nov. 23).
U.K.: “Poppy pins banned in case people sue”
“The Royal British Legion has stopped supplying pins with its [veterans’-remembrance] poppies because it fears compensation claims from ‘injured’ members of the public.” “People can easily stab themselves with a pin and there is always the worry of litigation,” says the chairman of an RBL branch in Somerset. However, Peter Westwell, county secretary of the Shropshire branch, “called the no-pin rule ‘poppycock’. He said: ‘It is compensation culture gone mad.'” (Elizabeth Day, Daily Telegraph, Nov. 2)