POL00103409 - Email from Jane MacLeod to Tim Parker, Ken McCall, Carla Stent and Others re Postmaster Litigation - Confidential and Subject to Legal Privilege - Do Not Forward

Evidence on official site

Message

POL00103409
POL00103409

From:

on behalf of

Sent:
To:

cc:

Subject:

All

Jane MacLeod}
Jane Macleod}

Carla Stent1
i Tim.Franklind

We received the judgment this morning in the Common Issues Trial. The judgment is 325 pages and very detailed, and
as a result we have not yet read it completely or fully understood all the arguments. However a high level review
indicates:

e

e

We have lost on all material points

The judge has criticised Post Office comprehensively — both as to our historic operations and behaviours and our
conduct of the case

The judge accepts the evidence of the Lead Claimants but is sceptical of our witnesses who he characterises as
‘extraordinarily partisan’

He has struck out the key contractual provisions which require postmasters to account to Post Office, and

He has stated that the Branch Trading Statement — which is the key document on which Post Office relies for
postmasters to account for cash and stock in branches — cannot be relied on as a statement of account.

The judgment will be handed down formally either next Friday (15") or on Monday 18". In the meantime we are
working on grounds for appeal.

We have activated our contingency planning in order that we have communications and detailed plans available and
ready to launch at the point the judgment is formally handed down. In the meantime, the judgment is subject to
embargo and cannot be shared or discussed outside of Post Office and its legal team. We are keeping the news to a
tight team within Post Office.

There are many questions that we cannot yet answer and we need some time to fully digest the verdict. We will
therefore be setting up a Board call probably on Tuesday. In the meantime, please call either myself or Al as needed.

Jane

@ Jane MacLeod
Group Director of Legal, Risk & Governance
Ground Floor
20 Finsbury Street
LONDON
EC2Y 9AQ

Mobile number

POL-0102992