POL00006440
POL00006440
POSTMASTER GROUP ACTION
CONFIDENTIAL AND LEGALLY PRIVILEGED
Steering Group Meeting: 12 July 2017
DECISION: SHOULD POST OFFICE CHANGE ITS COMMUNICATION STRATEGY?
BACKGROUND:
. Since the beginning of this litigation, Post Office has been issuing short and neutral statements in
response to low level media coverage. These statements simply acknowledge that Post Office
will not comment on live litigation.
. Whilst the Claimants are not permitted under Court rules to use Post Office's Defence (which will
be served on 18 July) for media purposes, it is likely that it will be leaked.
. By 26 July all Claimants joining the Group Action will need to have formally issued a Claim, giving
near finality to the numbers of Claimants. Freeths have confirmed in recent correspondence that
they expect the total number of Claimants to be around 400-500.
. The above two factors may be a catalyst for some media activity by the Claimants. Post Office
could therefore consider putting out a more partisan comms message, based around the strength
of its Defence and the weaknesses in the Claimants’ claims.
ADVANTAGES OF MORE PARTISAN MESSAGE:
. Post Office's passive media positon may be encouraging the Claimants who perceive POL's
silence as a sign of weakness. This may make it more difficult to settle down the line.
. A neutral statement in response to comments made by Claimants could appear weak. The Post
Office network, including both postmasters and clients, may be disappointed if Post Office does
not issue a firmer response.
. If Post Office makes clear that it intends to take a strong defence, this is likely to come to the
attention of the Claimants' funder and could have a knock-on effect on the funder's willingness to
increase its investment.
. By 26 July all Claimants will have joined the litigation so if a stronger line were to be taken, Post
Office cannot be accused of deterring anyone from signing up.
. If the comms lines mirror the Defence wording, Post Office can have confidence that these lines
have been fully vetted.
DISADVANTAGES.
. Amore aggressive comms line may create media interest where there is none. History tells us
that media interest tends to support the postmasters over Post Office regardless of what Post
Office says.
RECOMMENDATION:
Our view is that Post Office should maintain its current reactive and neutral comms strategy unless
significant media interest arises. If there is an uptick in interest, then Post Office would be justified in
adopting a more partisan message, based on the positions adopted in the Defence.
4A_36296923_1 1