POL00043187
POL00043187
FREETHS
Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP
DX 38517 Southampton 3
1 November 2019
Our Ref JXH/1684/21 13618/4/AR
Dear Sirs
POST OFFICE GROUP LITIGATION
HORIZON ISSUES TRIAL — LATE KEL VERSION DISCLOSURE
We write further on the issues of late KEL disclosure, and the incorrect statement in the Post Office’s
EDQ with regard to the previous versions of KELs:
"t]he KEL only contains the current database entries and is constantly updated and so the
current version will not necessarily reflect the version that was in place at the relevant time.
The previous entries /versions of the current entries are no longer available".
In short, we do not think that the Claimants can sensibly be expected to deal with the volume of
material still becoming available, after the trial has in fact finished and at a time when doing so would
be likely to delay or derail handing down of the judgment, if the Court were expected to take into
account the detail of any substantive submissions that might be made.
We will therefore be writing to the Court, to inform the Managing Judge that we do not wish to make
any substantive submissions in relation to the versions of KELs still being disclosed as at today. We
do not wish this to cause any delay to the handing down of judgment.
5,000 KELs
Your letter of 24 October 2019 explained that Fujitsu had extracted approximately 14,000 entries
from the database, which existed in December 2018, of which (after de-duplication) you estimate a
further 5,000 or so should represent undisclosed back versions of KELs. (These are quite distinct
from the additional PEAKs and KELs (or updated versions thereof) disclosed on 25 September 2019,
which had come to your or your client's attention in August and early September 2019.)
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POL00043187
POL00043187
1 November 2019
Page 2
Of the above 5,000 undisclosed back versions of KELs, we have to date received 346 of those KELs
(disclosed with your letter of 24 October 2019).
It is simply not realistic, appropriate or proportionate to make a detailed analysis of these at this
distance in time from the end of the trial. Any substantive points that fell to be made would need to
be addressed in response by the Post Office, for reasons of fairness, and this would almost certainly
disrupt, delay or derail the finalisation and handing down of the judgment.
Version inconsistencies
We have noted surprising differences, on the face of some of the recently disclosed versions, where
the same version now disclosed has different headings or formatting from the earlier disclosed
document which bears the same version number. However, in the context of the evidence as a
whole, we do not think that it is realistic, appropriate or proportionate to pursue this matter further.
Parties’ submissions
The parties have already made their respective submissions in relation to disclosure and the use
that the parties were able to make of that disclosure at various stages up to and including the trial.
Further, the Court has available the underlying documents as to the history of the parties’ positions,
to which those submission refer. We are perfectly content for the Court to factor in, so far as may be
relevant at all, the revelation of these undisclosed versions of KELs, without the need for further
submissions from either party.
We will be writing to the Court in order to ensure that this issue does not cause any further delay to
the finalisation and handing down of the judgment, and will enclose a copy of this letter to you.
Yours faithfully,
Freeths LLP
Please respond by e-mail where possible