Often one of the first things that clients who have suffered wrongs at the hands of the Police will say to me, is that they are in pursuit of justice for what happened to them, and that it is “not about the money”.
Whilst I absolutely understand and applaud that sentiment, one of the first things that I will say in response is that as far as the civil courts of this country are concerned, it is about the money. Money is what makes the world of civil justice go round. A claim for loss of your liberty, for trespass to your person or to your property will be treated by the County Court or High Court as ultimately an exercise in assessing which party must pay the other damages and/or costs, monetary restitution as assessed within the parameters of the case law which has been set by the judiciary of England & Wales over the decades.
When the ‘right amount of money’ is on the table, I have to advise you to take it, because the law does not, in fact, want people to ‘have their day in Court’ and penalises those who turn down what the Judge deems to have been the right amount of money offered at an earlier stage, by making even a winning Claimant pay the losing Defendant’s legal costs – if at Court the Claimant’s final award of damages is not greater than an earlier settlement offer made by the Defendant.
In some respects, this is exactly as it should be, of course – because the Court cannot turn back the clock and all that can be done in a civil context for injuries, losses and other wrongs committed against a person, no matter how severe, is to award monetary damages which the Claimant can then put towards future financial security, therapy/ rehabilitation and, frankly, the kind of pleasures and amenities of life that can be bought with money, so as to balance out the previous harm.
To be entirely clear: whilst I fully appreciate the strength of your feeling and understand that your desire for justice and accountability from the Police is not primarily about money, the fact is that we have to operate within the rules of the civil court system which have been set, and with those legal tools which are available to us. The only legal remedy the Court can ultimately provide is financial compensation; the civil courts cannot order criminal charges to be brought against the Police Officers involved, nor make disciplinary findings against them, nor order the Chief Constable to fire them. A judge cannot even order the Police to apologise to you, no matter how heinous the Judge concluded their actions against you were.
So, I have to advise you in terms of money (damages and legal costs) and that is all that I can promise to recover for you using the mechanisms of the Court, if we win.
But that isn’t actually the end of the story, because although those are the tools and rules that we have, there are, as an indirect but nevertheless potent part of the process, other moral goods which can be achieved through bringing a civil claim, which do get us closer to that unquantifiable sense of justice that I know is at the heart of most people’s motivation in this matter.
It’s Not About The Money: The Other Benefits of Bringing a Civil Claim
- Acknowledgment: Although no Defendant can be ordered to apologise, it is not unusual for a formal apology to be negotiable as part and parcel of a financial settlement, and precisely because of the money claim which not only gives you a voice the Defendant has to listen to – it also gives the Defendant an incentive to satisfy you emotionally so as to avoid mounting legal costs (its own as well as yours).
- Understanding: In response to a civil claim, the Defendant has to hand over all relevant pieces of documentary evidence for you and your lawyer to review. This enables you to gain understanding into the motivations of the Police and the reasons why they acted towards you in the way you did. You are, in effect, investigating them, and searching through Police documents – reversing the interrogatory process to which you were probably subject if you were arrested.
- Publicity: There is no ‘confidentiality clause’ inherent in either a negotiated settlement or a Court judgment. The greater the monetary award made in your favour, the greater publicity your case is likely to attract, if you then go on to share your story in the media. Media scrutiny generated by successful claims against the Police is one of the best ways to make those organisations change for the better and to help ensure that the same thing doesn’t happen to other people in the future. I am proud to play my part in that process through this very blog, in which each week, with the gracious permission of my clients, I am able to highlight Police wrongdoing, reinforce the public’s knowledge of their civil rights and make my clients’ voices heard.
- Accountability: Police Forces do not have a bottomless pit of money to allow them to constantly ‘buy off’ claims. The public scrutiny generated by a successful claim accompanied by a sizeable financial settlement (including the legal costs of the claim) create external and internal pressure on the Police that can lead to cultural change, the curbing of bad behaviour and unlawful practices and the tightening of Police vetting procedures, so as to reduce the number of rogue officers who are costing the Force ‘an arm and a leg.’
- Privacy: A successful money claim, which may be accompanied by an admission of liability or Court judgment in your favour, would greatly assist with any subsequent application made to the Criminal Records Office for deletion of the data relating to your wrongful arrest and the (literal and metaphorical) removal of your ‘thumbprint’ from the criminal justice database.
- Empowerment: A claim for damages is a very different way to access justice than through the criminal courts – in which you are either the Defendant responding to a case brought against you or a witness in a case brought against, say, an abusive Police Officer, but which case is controlled by a third party (the Crown Prosecution Service) rather than by you and your lawyers. Likewise, in the Police misconduct system, even as an active ‘complainant’ you do not have direct access to the levers of the system or the evidential material, and you are often reduced to the role of a ‘bystander’, frozen out of key decisions or kept in the dark about crucial evidence. In a civil claim, however, you are the agent of your own justice: in bringing the claim you are calling the shots and the Defendant must respond to you, explain its actions, hand over all relevant evidence and answer to Court orders and directions. The Defendant must listen to you, whether it wants to or not. Although it can be stressful, the experience of collaborating on a hard-fought case with your lawyer and winning can also be an immensely rewarding and cathartic one in and of itself, bringing a great sense of personal satisfaction and empowerment.
Monetary awards, in terms of damages and costs, are the sinews of our civil law; they make the world of the Courts go round, just as muscles move the body. Without such systems, the body could not function – but now step back and look at the bigger picture. Muscles and money are both just mechanisms in a far greater and less easily defined whole. Whilst one system powers the human body, the other powers democratic justice.
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