Crazy last week before Christmas is crazy
G's five-day case has "stood up" which means it's going to go forward. The father seems to have disappeared, as he hasn't engaged with his solicitors since the last hearing and didn't come to court today; but the mother is quite clearly not going to put her hands up and allow her children to be adopted without a fight.
Funny that.
Meanwhile, I haven't finished S's particulars of claim, but she hasn't chased for them so if I can get away with it I'll take the weekend. Each time I put some thought into them they become more complicated. Today I realised that the specific heads of economic loss the client sustained were not as a result of his two and a half hour detention, but actually as a result of him wrongfully being denied entry into the UK (he had a passport and a work visa; the immigration officers decided his passport was forged; we say it wasn't; the Home Office has since admitted that his detention was unlawful which must surely mean that they accept the validity of his passport, but I must check with S). Ie, he didn't lose money from not getting one of the jobs he had interviews lined up for because of being detained; he didn't get the interviews, and hence sustained loss of chance, because he was sent back to Nigeria. So I can't claim those damages for the false imprisonment, because they weren't a result of the false imprisonment.
This means I have to plead negligence as well as false imprisonment, claiming compensation for general damages for the false imprisonment, and specific heads of loss for the negligence. Thus making it far more complicated than the particulars of claim I had to do for the drafting exam that I almost failed. Deep joy. Perhaps not as deep as the joy S will feel when I finally hand her the pleading, but fairly deep.
Funny that.
Meanwhile, I haven't finished S's particulars of claim, but she hasn't chased for them so if I can get away with it I'll take the weekend. Each time I put some thought into them they become more complicated. Today I realised that the specific heads of economic loss the client sustained were not as a result of his two and a half hour detention, but actually as a result of him wrongfully being denied entry into the UK (he had a passport and a work visa; the immigration officers decided his passport was forged; we say it wasn't; the Home Office has since admitted that his detention was unlawful which must surely mean that they accept the validity of his passport, but I must check with S). Ie, he didn't lose money from not getting one of the jobs he had interviews lined up for because of being detained; he didn't get the interviews, and hence sustained loss of chance, because he was sent back to Nigeria. So I can't claim those damages for the false imprisonment, because they weren't a result of the false imprisonment.
This means I have to plead negligence as well as false imprisonment, claiming compensation for general damages for the false imprisonment, and specific heads of loss for the negligence. Thus making it far more complicated than the particulars of claim I had to do for the drafting exam that I almost failed. Deep joy. Perhaps not as deep as the joy S will feel when I finally hand her the pleading, but fairly deep.