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CONFIDENTIAL AND LEGALLY PRIVILEGED
POST OFFICE GROUP LITIGATION WOMBLE
22 March 2018 BOND
DICKINSON
Briefing Note
1. HEADLINES
141 First trial in November 2018 relating to contractual issues.
1.4.41
1.1.2
Key issue: The Claimants are trying to get prejudicial material in front of the Court
about how Post Office handles losses in branches. This may colour the Judge's view
of Post Office, leading him to believe Post Office to be an unreasonable organisation
and causing him to interpret the contract in a way that gives more protection to
postmasters.
Action: We are opposing this at every Court hearing on the ground that this material
is inadmissible evidence and so far the Judge has supported Post Office's position.
Once all evidence has been filed (Aug 18) we may ask the Court to strike out any
inadmissible evidence before the trial begins.
Next milestone: Claimants to file claims on 6 Lead Cases in mid-April and Counsel's
opinion on the merits of Post Office's legal position due at end of April 2018.
1.2 Second trial in March 2019 relating to Horizon.
1.24
1.2.2
1.2.3
1.3 Costs
1.3.3
1.4 Overall strategy: (Jane Rod
Key issue: The risk with a discrete Horizon trial is that the Court may find that there
are bugs in the system (which is likely — it is a complex system) but be unable to say
whether those bugs are material without understanding the wider context of how Post
Office / a branch operates. From a legal perspective this risk is a manageable part of
the litigation process but it may lead to adverse media headlines.
Action: We have opposed this trial, but it was ordered by the Judge against Post
Office's and the Claimants' wishes. Our IT expert witness is meeting with the
Claimants’ IT expert and will attempt to frame the scope of the trial in a such way so
as to minimise this outcome.
Next milestone: Meeting of IT expert witnesses in April 2018.
Key issue: The double trial process will incur significant legal spend, estimated at
£5.5m from now to end of November 2018 trial. The Claimants are seeking to cap
Post Office's recoverable costs at £2.5m. If the Claimants obtain a cap on Post
Office's costs this will significantly reduce their risk exposure encouraging them to
fight the litigation for longer.
Action: Post Office has proposed a compromise of tighter costs management (but not
a cap) in return for the Claimants putting up security to ensure that Post Office's costs
get paid if it is successful.
Next milestone: Hearing on 30 April 2018 to about cost capping and security if no
deal can be reached.
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1.4.1 Key issue: Even if Post Office has a positive result in November 2018, this will not
stop the litigation. It will continue into March 2019 and beyond unless a settlement is
reached with the Claimants. The parties have been ordered to mediate after the
November 2018 trial and entering negotiations off the back of a good trial outcome
would put Post Office in a strong negotiating position.
1.4.2 Action: Post Office to begin planning for settlement discussions with the Claimants to
see if a modest settlement payment may be sufficient to close down this litigation.
1.4.3 Key issue: If there is an adverse outcome in November 2018, this should not cause
an immediate impact on Post Office's business but long term it will affect its
commercial operating model.
1.4.4 Action: Post Office could (and almost certainly should) appeal any adverse decision.
A mitigation plan will be put together following receipt of Counsel's merits opinion.
1.4.5 Next milestone: Counsel's opinion on the merits of Post Office's legal position due at
end of April 2018
2. PREPARATION FOR NOVEMBER 2018 TRIAL
24 Selection of Lead Claimants — the November 2018 trial is to be heard by reference to 6
Claimants, who have now been selected. Alan Bates, Louise Dar and Pamela Stubbs were
selected by the Claimants; Elizabeth Stockdale, Mohammed Sabir and Naushad Abdulla were
selected by Post Office.
The process for selecting these Claimants involved a detailed review of nearly 200 Claimants by
subject matter experts at Post Office, WBD and Counsel to identify Claimants who represent the
broad spread of contracts operated by POL, have a good document trail and have minimal
prejudicial features.
2.2 Factual Matrix — prior to the November 2018 trial, the parties are required to agree a statement
of facts which explain the circumstances in which contracts between Post Office and
postmasters were entered into. A first draft has been produced by the Claimants and WBD are
in the process of responding to this.
2.3 Disclosure - there have been two Court hearings to decide the scope of documents which
should be disclosed by Post Office to the Claimants. It has been agreed that disclosure will be
provided in stages and the types of documents provided should be more limited than those
sought by the Claimants. To date, Post Office has disclosed 33,000 documents and there is
ongoing work in preparation for providing further disclosure.
24 Witnesses — WBD have conducted the first round of interviewing approximately 15 Post Office
employees who hold information which is relevant to the November 2018 trial. Work will
continue with these individuals to produce statements of their evidence.
3. PREPARATION FOR MARCH 2019 TRIAL.
3.1 Appointment of expert — Robert Worden of Charteris has been appointed as Post Office's IT
expert. Robert has done a significant amount of reading in and produced a plan for the first
stage of his work. In essence, he will produce a "foundations report" which sets out how Horizon
works by the end of May 2018. This will give him a firm platform to refute the points made by
the Claimants' expert in his main report and a large part of the foundations report will be folded
into Robert's main report.
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3.2
3.3
44
4.2
43
44
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Trial Issues — agreement has been reached on the issues that should be decided at the March
2019 trial. The Claimants sought a wider drafting of the issues which include the financial
reconciliation process (ie. how Post Office reconciles Horizon's record against Post Office's
clients records), however the issues have been narrowed so as to purely relate to topics
concerning only Horizon itself.
Horizon demonstration — both parties IT experts and the Claimants’ solicitor / Counsel have
been provided with a demonstration in the model office of how Horizon operates and provided
with a briefing by Fujitsu.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Pleadings — the Particulars of Claim for the 6 Lead Claimants are to be provided on 13 April
2018, with Post Office's Defences due on 18 May 2018.
Disclosure — further disclosure of documents which relate to the 6 Lead Claimants, documents
required for the November 2018 trial and technical Horizon documents will be provided to the
Claimants by 18 May 2018. It is expected that approx. 100,000 to 150,000 documents will be
disclosed.
Witness evidence — to be served on 12 August 2018.
Expert — by 22 June 2018 the parties' IT experts are to commence their meetings and
discussions to identify and where possible, reach agreed opinions on those issues (we expect
that the first meeting will take place in April). After that, the key dates are:-
441 18 July 2018 - Claimants must serve a provisional / outline document setting out the
nature of their allegations in relation to the Horizon Issues;
4.4.2 31 August 2018 - the experts must produce a joint statement which sets out the issues
on which they agree and those on which they don't agree (with a summary as to why);
44.3 14 September 2018 - Claimants to serve their IT expert report; and
44.4 2 November 2018 - Post Office to serve its IT expert report.
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