David's Flagship Case
David's 'flagship case' is the one where he helped one of his students against a council, one of whose vehicles had crashed into the student's parked car. We'll give a bit of detail because as Niels Bohr said, "accuracy and brevity are mutually exclusive". At first, the council admitted fault and repairs were estimated at between £3000 and £4000.
The council also agreed to pay for a hire car but then rowed back when its legal department got involved and said the case had no legal merit and offered only £500.
David's key advice at this point was to advise going to court and the insulting offer of £500 made the decision easy. It's important to know that if you're offered compensation and you reject it and go to court and win the case, you will be liable for all costs, IF the court gives you less than the rejected offer.This makes some brutal sense, as effectively you’ve wasted the court’s time by not accepting a reasonable offer. At court, the student faced three lawyers from the council boasting of 70 years experience and they said the case was very complicated and would take 3-4 days. The judge reviewed the student's arguments and documents and asked why the student had not used the council's preferred garage and he also asked why the student had hired an SUV instead of an ordinary car. The student said that the council's garage was booked up for months and the SUV had been offered at the same cost as an ordinary car. In effect the damages the council were liable for had been mitigated by the student's actions, but the council's lawyers thought they could score important points on them. The judge was satisfied with the case presented by David's student and said that it was neither complicated nor lengthy and awarded David's student £10 000 that very afternoon ! This compensation was for the cost of repairs, the hire SUV and for the time and effort to take the recalcitrant council to court.
The lessons here are that organizing your case clearly , focusing on the legal aspects and above all, refusing to be bullied , can enable an ordinary person to get justice !