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One of my favourite television programmes in the late 60s was the adaptation of A. P. Herbert’s ‘Misleading Cases in Common Law’ where the arch-litigant Albert Haddock frequently appeared in court to defend some improbable cause and won because he was usually in the right.
Herbert’s satirical and entertaining stories were all loosely based on legal fact so, in one example, Haddock wrote out a ‘cheque’ to the Inland Revenue for £57.10s on the back of a cow which he took to the bank. The Revenue declined to take the ‘payment’ and took Haddock to court which found that he had in fact attempted to make payment and that there was no case to answer.
The basic point behind the stories and the later television adaptation was not only the occasional absurdities in English law but that the common man, in the person of Albert Haddock, could represent himself in court, defend himself against the assembled lawyers and barristers and win his case.
This was bought to mind yesterday when a young Essex woman, Georgina Blackwell, faced up in the High Court against a team of lawyers paid by a house building firm and not only won her case but was awarded £75,000 in damages.
Miss Blackwell clashed with the building firm over access to her land in Essex next to which the firm wanted to build. At an earlier court hearing, she had lost her case and she subsequently met to agree a compromise solution to the problem which she thought had been reached. However, the building firm withdrew their offer and claimed that no binding agreement had been made. The case went to the High Court which found in Miss Blackwell’s favour.
One can well understand that, as she later said, the experience was a terrifying one. However, Miss Blackwell carefully researched the law and stood up against highly paid counsel in court and made her arguments so well that she was complemented by the judge for her handling of the case.
Good for her, especially as she is now considering a law career. And one up for the common man, or in this case an uncommon woman!
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One of my favourite television programmes in the late 60s was the adaptation of A. P. Herbert’s ‘Misleading Cases in Common Law’ where the arch-litigant Albert Haddock frequently appeared in court to defend some improbable cause and won because he was usually in the right.
Herbert’s satirical and entertaining stories were all loosely based on legal fact so, in one example, Haddock wrote out a ‘cheque’ to the Inland Revenue for £57.10s on the back of a cow which he took to the bank. The Revenue declined to take the ‘payment’ and took Haddock to court which found that he had in fact attempted to make payment and that there was no case to answer.
The basic point behind the stories and the later television adaptation was not only the occasional absurdities in English law but that the common man, in the person of Albert Haddock, could represent himself in court, defend himself against the assembled lawyers and barristers and win his case.
This was bought to mind yesterday when a young Essex woman, Georgina Blackwell, faced up in the High Court against a team of lawyers paid by a house building firm and not only won her case but was awarded £75,000 in damages.
Miss Blackwell clashed with the building firm over access to her land in Essex next to which the firm wanted to build. At an earlier court hearing, she had lost her case and she subsequently met to agree a compromise solution to the problem which she thought had been reached. However, the building firm withdrew their offer and claimed that no binding agreement had been made. The case went to the High Court which found in Miss Blackwell’s favour.
One can well understand that, as she later said, the experience was a terrifying one. However, Miss Blackwell carefully researched the law and stood up against highly paid counsel in court and made her arguments so well that she was complemented by the judge for her handling of the case.
Good for her, especially as she is now considering a law career. And one up for the common man, or in this case an uncommon woman!
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