POL00042015
POL00042015
Message re
From: Rodric Williams I GRO
Sent: 07/09/2018 13:
To: Simon Clarke
ce:
Subject: Post Office Group Litigation - Horizon Issues Trial - Monday Con with Counsel - Strictly Private & Confidential
Attachments: 5. Order (Horizon issues).pdf; Horizon Issues document dated 17 August 2018.pdf; DOC_151742197(1)_ Horizon -
areas to cover FJ.DOCX; GARETH JENKINS ADVICE 15-7-2013.pdf
Martin, Simon — in advance of the con with counsel on Monday, please see the email below and attachments which has
been put together by Andy Parsons from Womble Bond Dickinson, who will also be attending the con.
llook forward to seeing you then.
Rodric
The Group Litigation involves 561 Claimants who broadly all allege that:
e Their contract terms are unfair and need to be re-interpreted in favour of Subpostmasters.
Horizon is defective and the true cause of losses in branches and / or Post Office or Fujitsu maliciously edited
their branch records to create the losses without telling Subpostmasters.
e The training and support provided by Post Office was inadequate (which in turn led them to make mistakes and
cause losses).
¢ As aresult of some or all of the above, their contracts were improperly terminated by Post Office and / or they
were forced to resign.
There is a 4 week trial listed for March 2019 that will exclusively address the allegations about Horizon. This is the
second in a series of trials — the first one in Nov 17 will deal with contractual issues and the third one — yet to be listed —
will deal with issues of breach and liability.
The judge has ordered that the March trial will be expert evidence led with minimal factual evidence. He is looking to deal
with Horizon in the abstract. There will be no lead or test cases and he will not be looking to apply his findings to any
particular Subpostmaster. In essence, he is seeking to establish whether Horizon is a robust and user-friendly
system. He will then take those findings into the third trial, where we expect there to be 10-20 test cases and where he
will seek to determine the root cause of, and liability for, losses in branches.
The key directions for the March Trial are as follows:
Both side's primary witness statements — 28 September
Claimants’ expert report — 16 October
POL's responsive evidence - 30 October
POL's expert report 30 November
Claimants’ responsive evidence — 28 December
Supplemental expert reports — both parties — 28 Jan 2019
eee eee
In terms of evidence from FJ, we believe we will need:
1. Evidence on the general operation of Horizon
2. Evidence on allegation that Post Office remotely edits branch data
3. Evidence on specific bugs that the Claimants have identified.
Having spoken to Fu, there are parts of points 2 and 3 that only Gareth Jenkins can realistically provide (for example,
there are certain historic bugs that Gareth dealt with).
To be clear, Gareth would be called as a witness of fact. He will be providing descriptive evidence of systems and
processes, and perhaps his investigations of certain bugs. He is not being asked to give an opinion. The opinion will be
POL-0038497
POL00042015
POL00042015
given by our expert witness, Dr Robert Worden, based on the factual foundations set by the witness evidence of FJ and
the documents disclosed about Horizon.
The con on Monday will be with Tony Robinson and Simon Henderson of Counsel. The purpose of the con is to discuss
the risks of using Gareth Jenkins as a witness given his previous role as a prosecution witness.
Please find attached the following documents:
1. Court Order setting out the Horizon Issues to be addressed in March 2019.
2. The Claimants’ Outline Allegations about Horizon.
3. Simon Clarke's advice note from 2013.
Kind regards
Andy
Andrew Parsons
Partner
Wombie Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP.
Stay informed: sign up to our e-alerts
WOMBLE womblebonddickinson.com
BOND
DICKINSON w ©
der dic en
te pring ¢
~ww.womblebonddickinson.convlegal
Womble Bond Diokiesua (UK
POL-0038497
POL00042015
POL00042015
FICIOROI CIO ICICI CIO GR I OK ICI 3 2 a 2k 21 2 2k fe 2k Fe 2k ek fe 2k af ae ake af af af fea aR ake a 2 a 2k a 2k a 2k a 2 ake ae 2k a 2k 2k fe ak afc ak ae ake ae ak ae ak
This email and any attachments are confidential and intended for the addressee only. If you are not the named
recipient, you must not use, disclose, reproduce, copy or distribute the contents of this communication. If you
have received this in error, please contact the sender by reply email and then delete this email from your system.
Any views or opinions expressed within this email are solely those of the sender, unless otherwise specifically
stated.
POST OFFICE LIMITED is registered in England and Wales no 2154540, Registered Office: Finsbury Dials,
20 Finsbury Street, London EC2Y 9AQ.
2A FF CF KR 2B FF KR RR R01 0 08 2 00K 08 08 C421 0 RR 00 0 0 CCG 0
POL-0038497