The UK Judicial System Part 2
So I arrived at my first court hearing, only to find that Gian Paolo Aliatis was one of hundreds of names summoned to court that day. Everyone who arrived was checked in and then the court decided whether to hear their case or not. In my opinion, it was a bit of a joke.
This pattern repeated itself many times in the following years, with different cases. We would arrive at court, prepared for our case, only to have our time wasted. Sometimes, the court hadn't received any documents or evidence about the case, and they would reschedule the hearing for a later date. Other times, one of the parties would have lost the necessary documentation, which was frustrating.
My experiences in court were a big wake-up call. We would prepare for our case and stress about our presentation in court through sleepless nights, only to find that the system didn’t follow the politically correct sense of justice that it is supposed to have. I learned that certain types of barristers get much better results than others, regardless of their skills. There are factors that I cannot mention in this article, that have a huge influence on the outcome of a case.
I have seen judges take our side in a way that I am ashamed of. For instance, one day we were given £40,000 in damages for a claim we brought against our landlord. The landlord had unlawfully evicted us three times based on a dispute that started with the flooding of a property caused by a faulty system. The judge was treating the defendant and their legal team in a way that amazed even our lawyer.
I've also had an experience with a judge who threatened to put me in jail, because he didn’t understand the context of the case. A woman had sublet a room in one of our properties and claimed benefits for the whole property, which was benefit fraud. The first judge that was at the hearing threatened me with jail time if I did not let this fraudster re-enter the property, completely failing to understand that the fraudster had not actually left the property.
I've had a lot of success in the county courts, winning 98% of the battles we've fought. In the end, it all comes down to the evidence, how you structure your case, what mood the judge is in that day and other factors of a similar nature. You just need to understand the system.
Overall, I don't blame the UK legal system or the judges because they oversee an enormous amount of cases and deal with a lot of nonsense, which is essentially brought by people who don't know how to follow the laws of this country correctly. And besides, the UK judicial system appears to be much more efficient than most legal systems around the world.
I have more to share on this, so will see you in the next post.
Yours,
