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Post Office Group Litigation
Update for UKGI Following Post Office Limited Board Meeting on 31 July 2018
Sent on 8 August 2018 in accordance with UKGI/Post Office Limited Information Sharing
Protocol dated 11 June 2018
1. Common Issues Trial - November 2018
1.1. Pleadings for the Common Issues Trial are now complete, following filing of:
1.1.1 Lead Claimants’ Individual Particulars of Claim on 13 April 2018;
1.1.2 Post Office’s Defences to the Individual Particulars of Claim.on 15 June 2018;
1.1.3. Lead Claimant’s Replies on 6 July 2018.
No Rejoinders from Post Office to the Replies were required.
1.2 The Claimants have not progressed their threat to apply to strike out Post Office’s pleaded
eeee reas nes terms. This meant a Court hearing scheduled for 25 July 2018 was not
1.3 Disclosure was completed on 18 May 2018:
1.3.1. Post Office disclosed more than-200,000 documents, compared to less than 5,000
from the Claimants.
1.3.2 The Claimants have challenged the adequacy of Post Office’s disclosure. This is
currently being addressed in correspondence (i.e. the Court and Judge are not yet
involved).
1.4 An Agreed Statement.of Facts was filed on 27 July 2018.
1.5 Witness Statements are due to be exchanged on 10 August 2018. Post Office will be
seeking an extension of up to 14 days to complete this exercise, which the Claimants have
indicated they will oppose. This is the last substantial exchange of information between
the parties-about the Common Issues before trial starts on 5 November 2018.
1.6 Leading Counsel will review their May 2018 Interim Merits Opinion in September 2018,
once they have reviewed the parties’ Witness Statements.
1.7. The Claimants may seek to introduce into their Witness Statements material which is
inadmissible for the Common Issues trial. The Judge has confirmed that he will deal with
any questions about admissibility before trial if required.
1.8 A Case Management Conference has been scheduled for 19 September 2018 to address
any further directions required for the Common Issues 7 rial, e.g. fixing «
late October 2018 for a “Pre Trial Review” to ensure the case is ready for trial.
2. Horizon Issues Trial - March 2019
2.1 The main activity on the Horizon trial has been disclosure. This was substantially
completed on 31 July 2018, with Post Office disclosing c.126,000 documents, compared to
45 from the Claimants.
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2.2 Post Office must respond to specific requests for information made by the Claimants’
expert (Jason Coyne of IT Group) by 8 August 2018.
2.3. On 17 August 2018 the Claimants’ expert will set out their Horizon allegations. This will
be the first time these have been formally articulated.
2.4 Both experts will produce a joint report on 4 September 2018. The Claimant's expert's full
report is due on 16 October 2018, with Post Office’s expert report (from Dr Robert Worden
of Charteris) due on 30 October 2018.
3.1.1
4. Security for Costs
4.1 On 16 February 2018 Post Office applied to the Court for the Claimants to provide
“security for costs”, so that there is a source of funds available to Post Office should it be
successful in the litigation and the Claimants ordered to contribute towards its costs. This
application can nowsbe progressed following the Court's approval of Post Office’s budget.
4.2 The Claimants ‘seem to accept the principle that some form of security should be provided.
There is however dispute between the parties over the:
Amount of Security - the Claimants have offered £2.5m, when a conservative
“estimate against Post Office’s Court-approved budget is c.£6.5m; and
4.2.1
Form of Security - the Claimants have revised the wording in the insurance policy
taken to cover their exposure to Post Office’s costs. We are considering whether
this adequately addresses the risk that the policy is avoided due to fraud by the
Claimants. Adequate security should take a form “as good as cash”.
4.3 The Court will be asked to rule on security in the absence of any agreement between the
parties. A hearing to determine this issue will likely take place in mid to late September
2018.
5. Settlement Options
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5.2
5.3
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8. Upcoming activity
y
8.1 The main activities between now and the next Board meeting on 25 September 2018 will
be:
8.1.1
8.1.2
8.1.3
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Finalising Witness Statements for the Common Issues trial and progressing
preparation of the IT expert reports for the Horizon Issues trial;
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Updating Leading Counsels’ Merits Opinion on the Common Issues following
exchange of Witness Statements; and
the Permanent Secretary of BEIS and UKGI on 10
Preparing for the meeting
September 2018. xC
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