• A random thought

    From Davey@davey@example.invalid to uk.legal.moderated on Tue Jun 2 08:28:44 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.legal.moderated

    Prompted by the impending award to Betty Brown, the oldest surviving
    Post Office Scandal survivor, I wondered:
    Say that all the legal work to be undertaken by the Post Office to
    check and reduce the amounts of the payouts yet to be settled, was
    stopped, how would the potential savings in legal fees compare to
    the amount claimed but as yet unpaid? In other words, would it actually
    be cheaper to just pay the outstanding claims and do away with the
    delays, than to go through all the procedures and incidentally watch
    more of the claimants die before they get their claims paid?
    --
    Davey.


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  • From Jon Ribbens@jon+usenet@unequivocal.eu to uk.legal.moderated on Tue Jun 2 08:14:01 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.legal.moderated

    On 2026-06-02, Davey <davey@example.invalid> wrote:
    Prompted by the impending award to Betty Brown, the oldest surviving
    Post Office Scandal survivor, I wondered:
    Say that all the legal work to be undertaken by the Post Office to
    check and reduce the amounts of the payouts yet to be settled, was
    stopped, how would the potential savings in legal fees compare to
    the amount claimed but as yet unpaid? In other words, would it actually
    be cheaper to just pay the outstanding claims and do away with the
    delays, than to go through all the procedures and incidentally watch
    more of the claimants die before they get their claims paid?

    You make a good point.

    Sometimes, the value in fighting something is not just the cost of
    that battle, but that of battles yet to come - it's worth spending -u50
    to save -u10 if you'll then also save another -u10 every month going
    forwards.

    But - unless the Post Office is planning on having another Horizon
    scandal sometime soon - that doesn't apply here. Even spending -u10
    to save -u10 would be stupid, especially given that that -u10 would
    be far better off in the hands of the victims than in those of the
    legal department that caused the problem in the first place.

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  • From The Todal@the_todal@icloud.com to uk.legal.moderated on Tue Jun 2 22:03:49 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.legal.moderated

    On 02/06/2026 08:28, Davey wrote:
    Prompted by the impending award to Betty Brown, the oldest surviving
    Post Office Scandal survivor, I wondered:
    Say that all the legal work to be undertaken by the Post Office to
    check and reduce the amounts of the payouts yet to be settled, was
    stopped, how would the potential savings in legal fees compare to
    the amount claimed but as yet unpaid? In other words, would it actually
    be cheaper to just pay the outstanding claims and do away with the
    delays, than to go through all the procedures and incidentally watch
    more of the claimants die before they get their claims paid?


    The claims are likely to be very difficult to value. In most
    compensation claims you can value the injury based on published
    guidelines and you can calculate the financial losses based on
    accountancy evidence and/or past bank statements and invoices and payslips.

    Here, paymasters' lives were utterly ruined by the Post Office and I can
    well imagine that the Post Office's lawyers won't simply say "you've
    claimed 1.5 million so we'll pay you that". There has to be a process
    of proving the loss. And maybe the claimant was bankrupted and was
    unable to get fresh employment or to start a new business, maybe they
    had to sell their house at a loss.

    I hope the claimants have good lawyers who have demanded and applied for interim payments, quite standard in most cases, to assist the claimants
    until a final settlement can be agreed.

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  • From Davey@davey@example.invalid to uk.legal.moderated on Wed Jun 3 08:46:48 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.legal.moderated

    On Tue, 2 Jun 2026 22:03:49 +0100
    The Todal <the_todal@icloud.com> wrote:

    On 02/06/2026 08:28, Davey wrote:
    Prompted by the impending award to Betty Brown, the oldest surviving
    Post Office Scandal survivor, I wondered:
    Say that all the legal work to be undertaken by the Post Office to
    check and reduce the amounts of the payouts yet to be settled, was
    stopped, how would the potential savings in legal fees compare to
    the amount claimed but as yet unpaid? In other words, would it
    actually be cheaper to just pay the outstanding claims and do away
    with the delays, than to go through all the procedures and
    incidentally watch more of the claimants die before they get their
    claims paid?

    The claims are likely to be very difficult to value. In most
    compensation claims you can value the injury based on published
    guidelines and you can calculate the financial losses based on
    accountancy evidence and/or past bank statements and invoices and
    payslips.

    Here, paymasters' lives were utterly ruined by the Post Office and I
    can well imagine that the Post Office's lawyers won't simply say
    "you've claimed 1.5 million so we'll pay you that". There has to be
    a process of proving the loss. And maybe the claimant was bankrupted
    and was unable to get fresh employment or to start a new business,
    maybe they had to sell their house at a loss.

    I hope the claimants have good lawyers who have demanded and applied
    for interim payments, quite standard in most cases, to assist the
    claimants until a final settlement can be agreed.


    Presumably the claimants were given some sort of template with which to
    file their claims? One scenario would be to just pay them all as
    claimed, and stop all the delays and prevaricating tactics that are
    being used to deny and delay those claims. The total of the outstanding
    sums should just be a quick mathematical sum, AI could do it in
    a nano-second. Then take a snapshot of what has been spent so far on
    litigation and come up with a rough average of -us per claimant.
    The results would be interesting.

    Yes, I know it's simplistic, but it would at least mean that more
    people would see their redress before they die.
    --
    Davey.


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  • From Max Demian@max_demian@bigfoot.com to uk.legal.moderated on Wed Jun 3 11:34:50 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.legal.moderated

    On 03/06/2026 08:46, Davey wrote:
    On Tue, 2 Jun 2026 22:03:49 +0100
    The Todal <the_todal@icloud.com> wrote:

    On 02/06/2026 08:28, Davey wrote:
    Prompted by the impending award to Betty Brown, the oldest surviving
    Post Office Scandal survivor, I wondered:
    Say that all the legal work to be undertaken by the Post Office to
    check and reduce the amounts of the payouts yet to be settled, was
    stopped, how would the potential savings in legal fees compare to
    the amount claimed but as yet unpaid? In other words, would it
    actually be cheaper to just pay the outstanding claims and do away
    with the delays, than to go through all the procedures and
    incidentally watch more of the claimants die before they get their
    claims paid?

    The claims are likely to be very difficult to value. In most
    compensation claims you can value the injury based on published
    guidelines and you can calculate the financial losses based on
    accountancy evidence and/or past bank statements and invoices and
    payslips.

    Here, paymasters' lives were utterly ruined by the Post Office and I
    can well imagine that the Post Office's lawyers won't simply say
    "you've claimed 1.5 million so we'll pay you that". There has to be
    a process of proving the loss. And maybe the claimant was bankrupted
    and was unable to get fresh employment or to start a new business,
    maybe they had to sell their house at a loss.

    I hope the claimants have good lawyers who have demanded and applied
    for interim payments, quite standard in most cases, to assist the
    claimants until a final settlement can be agreed.


    Presumably the claimants were given some sort of template with which to
    file their claims? One scenario would be to just pay them all as
    claimed, and stop all the delays and prevaricating tactics that are
    being used to deny and delay those claims. The total of the outstanding
    sums should just be a quick mathematical sum, AI could do it in
    a nano-second. Then take a snapshot of what has been spent so far on litigation and come up with a rough average of -us per claimant.
    The results would be interesting.

    Yes, I know it's simplistic, but it would at least mean that more
    people would see their redress before they die.

    And a massive charge to innocent UK taxpayers. How do we get Fujitsu to
    cough up?
    --
    Max Demian

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  • From Davey@davey@example.invalid to uk.legal.moderated on Wed Jun 3 12:10:42 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.legal.moderated

    On Wed, 3 Jun 2026 11:34:50 +0100
    Max Demian <max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:

    On 03/06/2026 08:46, Davey wrote:
    On Tue, 2 Jun 2026 22:03:49 +0100
    The Todal <the_todal@icloud.com> wrote:

    On 02/06/2026 08:28, Davey wrote:
    Prompted by the impending award to Betty Brown, the oldest
    surviving Post Office Scandal survivor, I wondered:
    Say that all the legal work to be undertaken by the Post Office to
    check and reduce the amounts of the payouts yet to be settled, was
    stopped, how would the potential savings in legal fees compare to
    the amount claimed but as yet unpaid? In other words, would it
    actually be cheaper to just pay the outstanding claims and do away
    with the delays, than to go through all the procedures and
    incidentally watch more of the claimants die before they get their
    claims paid?

    The claims are likely to be very difficult to value. In most
    compensation claims you can value the injury based on published
    guidelines and you can calculate the financial losses based on
    accountancy evidence and/or past bank statements and invoices and
    payslips.

    Here, paymasters' lives were utterly ruined by the Post Office and
    I can well imagine that the Post Office's lawyers won't simply say
    "you've claimed 1.5 million so we'll pay you that". There has to
    be a process of proving the loss. And maybe the claimant was
    bankrupted and was unable to get fresh employment or to start a
    new business, maybe they had to sell their house at a loss.

    I hope the claimants have good lawyers who have demanded and
    applied for interim payments, quite standard in most cases, to
    assist the claimants until a final settlement can be agreed.


    Presumably the claimants were given some sort of template with
    which to file their claims? One scenario would be to just pay them
    all as claimed, and stop all the delays and prevaricating tactics
    that are being used to deny and delay those claims. The total of
    the outstanding sums should just be a quick mathematical sum, AI
    could do it in a nano-second. Then take a snapshot of what has been
    spent so far on litigation and come up with a rough average of -us
    per claimant. The results would be interesting.

    Yes, I know it's simplistic, but it would at least mean that more
    people would see their redress before they die.

    And a massive charge to innocent UK taxpayers. How do we get Fujitsu
    to cough up?


    I am thinking that the charge will be better spent on the claimants
    than on long-delayed litigation, resulting in more deaths while it's
    happening. The taxpayers will pay one way or the other, when really it
    should be the guilty people at the Post Office, and possibly its
    enforcers, who should be paying.

    I have no idea why Fujitsu have not been forced to pay, did not the CEO
    say once that Fujitsu would do its bit, or similar?

    Time to put its corporate money where its CEO's mouth is.
    --
    Davey.


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  • From Jethro@jethro_UK@hotmailbin.com to uk.legal.moderated on Wed Jun 3 13:55:35 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.legal.moderated

    On Wed, 03 Jun 2026 12:10:42 +0100, Davey wrote:

    I have no idea why Fujitsu have not been forced to pay, did not the CEO
    say once that Fujitsu would do its bit, or similar?

    I don't think he meant it.

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  • From Davey@davey@example.invalid to uk.legal.moderated on Wed Jun 3 17:40:48 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.legal.moderated

    On Wed, 3 Jun 2026 13:55:35 -0000 (UTC)
    Jethro <jethro_UK@hotmailbin.com> wrote:

    On Wed, 03 Jun 2026 12:10:42 +0100, Davey wrote:

    I have no idea why Fujitsu have not been forced to pay, did not the
    CEO say once that Fujitsu would do its bit, or similar?

    I don't think he meant it.


    Meanwhile, I believe they are still getting contracts awarded.
    --
    Davey.


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