I have always found this site to be my guiding light. However, must admit to being somewhat disillusioned by the content of late. Why no mention of the Freedom of Information Act or is every mortgage victim satisfied that the courts are impartial? I for one am not. I have just downloaded the information concerning this Act from www.dataprotection.gov. I have not had time (as yet) to study the same but will post again should I believe what I discover could be of help. In the meantime, if there is anybody out there already well versed with the Act feel free to enlighten us!

-- ANONish (badger @Nasty West.com), December 21, 2004

Answers

Interesting topic the FOI Act.

I only have very limited knowledge of the FOI Act, and I'm just a bod, but here is my view, and an insight as well.

In February 2004 I was refused permission by the High Court for access to all High Court Claim files. I'd requested access to the court files under CPR 5.4.1 and CPR 5.4.2, which states that any member of the public may inspect the court claim files, and request copies of the court claim files upon payment of a fee.

The High Court interprets the CPR, always a good policy to "Interpret" a law which is actually quite clear in both its meaning and intent;

"Anybody wanting to inspect the claim files must pay a fee to examine the list of claims. If the claim has been served, then they may request a copy of the documents in the claim."

Now, as a Litigant in Person on Income Support who wishes to determine the number of Strike Outs by a certain Master, and all Masters, in the Queens Bench, in support of my valid claim to the Court of Appeal, I'm not over bothered by the fee requirement, since I'm Fee Exempt.

So I requested statistics on all Queens Bench claims for 2001, 2002 and 2003. I was not over interested in the claims as such; I simply wanted to determine the statistics of Strike Outs by the Masters.

The Senior Master refused my request, on administrative grounds, because the Queens Bench Actions Office did not have the resources to provide me with this service.

At the same time, I needed to verify the contents of the court files for my two High Court claims, so I also requested a full copy of my own claim files. Again, the response from the Senior Queens Bench Master was that because of resource restrictions, I would not be provided with a copy of my own claim files either.

I issued a Judicial Review claim in the Admin Court concerning these "Administrative" decisions by the High Court. You are not allowed to issue a Judicial Review of High Court Judicial decisions, but this was an “Administrative" decision, and as such it is subject to a Judicial Review as is any government decision.

That was in February 2004.

Since then not a lot has happened.

I did issue an application for my own court files, because this was very urgent, and a very nice Judge ordered the Department of Constitutional Affairs to provide me with my own claim files within 48 hours. Which they did.

But since then not a lot has happened? Could it be that I’m being ignored by the High Court? Perish the thought.

I've written a couple of letters to the Administrative Court, and they have recently replied at last stating that my Judicial Review will go before a Judge.

Now what is interesting in this long boring story is that in November the Times complained to the Scottish Information Commissioner that they were being refused statistics of Scottish High Court Judge Decisions. The Times pointed out to the Scottish Information Commissioner that under the FOI Act these statistics would have to be provided in January 2005 anyway, and they wanted them. The Scottish Information Commissioner agreed, and the High Court of Scotland agreed (was ordered?) to provide the statistics to the Times. These statistics were then printed in an article in the Times in November.

Meanwhile, this little guy is still waiting for the statistics of High Court Queens Bench masters that he is entitled to anyway under the CPR, and even more so when the FOI becomes live in two weeks time.

I wonder if there is a record for a Judicial Review claim not being listed or considered. Maybe I should issue a Judicial Review of the Administration Court for not processing my Judicial Review of the High Court. It is after all, an Administrative Decision to ignore me for ever, yes, maybe this is the way forward.

Johnson vs the Administrative Court!

The really stupid thing about this posting is that it is all true.

Yes Minister is alive and well.

See my daughters web site concerning Judicial Reviews; www.zcredit.co.uk

MLJ

-- Michael Johnson (mleo@zcredit.co.uk), December 22, 2004.

Michael

I want to revisit your daughter's website. However, the page cannot currently be accessed. Is the any particular reason for this?

Anon

-- Anon (Badger@onetel.com), January 05, 2005.

Works ok for me?

-- Zena (zena@zcredit.co.uk), January 05, 2005.

Actually, the domain zcredit.co.uk has just been transferred to 123- com.

I think there are some web forwarding problems with this, but I'm a bit busy at present and my Dad is not very well.

I'll get right on it soon.

Can't get the staff......

Zena

-- Zena (zena@zcredit.plus.com), January 08, 2005.

Web site and email forwarding now fixed.

All the people who have been trying desperatly to access the same ANxx.pdf file can now try again, opps, I deleted it anyway.

Sorry and all that, but its bad enough with the web robots endlessly searching everything on the site, let alone all these AOL? users who want to access the same ANxx.pdf files all day long as well. So I've deleted a couple of the files for the time being. They will be back on the site eventually.

Happy New year everybody.

ZENA

-- Zena (zena@zcredit.co.uk), January 12, 2005.

I would have thought that interesting requests under FoI could be made to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the Financial Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner, in respect of complaints/assessments made by victims about lenders' practices and the results of those investigations. Also to the courts in respect of results / strike outs etc.

You can't obtain data about individuals but you can obtain useful statistical data if you ask the right questions.

-- Eleanor Scott (eleanor.scott@btinternet.com), March 06, 2005.

Eleanor,

Deception, Fraud, High Street Bank, Courts & Justice. Seven words that will never appear in the same sentence or I suspect for that matter my life time. In making an effort to discover the truth when you allegedly owe these people money and "they" will thwart you at every step. Until finally most mere mortals give up. I know from experience that public institutions will go to any length to withhold damning evidence from any data subject. However, if they think I'll throw in the towel then they've seriously underestimated my dogged determination to ensure that justice will be seen to be done.

Always admire your postings and thanks for your continued, sensible guidance. I know that you beat the system. No mean task, I know.

-- Victim (George.Lyle@bt.com), March 06, 2005.