Wanted: Spectators for Truro court action on Wednesday 13th August 2014 at 12:15 Allman vs Cornwall Social Services I am appearing in open court (not in a secret family court that nobody except the parties can attend), in a civil claim under the Human Rights Act, against Cornwall Council. Barry Of-the Gaynor-Family claim is (in part) in respect of child safeguarding social work undertaken in 2013 in response to my own referral of my son expressing concerns for his safety. The court touches upon the syndrome of parental alienation. The earliest facts on which my claim is based took place before I brought a private family law application against my son’s mother for shared residence and contact, and the most recent facts occurred or came to light after I had issued the claim. The hearing is listed for 45 minutes. I am inviting members of the public who might be interested in the legal process and its outcome, to attend court as peaceful spectators on that day (not as my “supporters”, please!) I am able to offer minibus transport to and from the court to any who are able and willing to attend the hearing. If the judge is able to see, from the number of people in the court room, that there is considerable public interest in the action that I am bringing, he or she may be less inclined to be impatient with me, and therefore to allow me to argue my case fully, as to why my claim should not be struck out, nor summary judgment awarded to the defendant, as the defendant has requested. If I were able to predict a good turn-out on the day, this would make the case more interesting to the media, who would therefore be more likely to attend. So, if you plan to attend the hearing, please let me know in advance, as soon as possible, especially if you need transport to the court in my minibus. I was briefly criticised at a meeting yesterday, of my peers in Families Need Fathers Exeter branch, for bringing a court case, instead of “engaging” with the council’s complaints procedure. My answer to that criticism (which appears quickly to have satisfied my temporary critic) is that I did make a complaint, about a year ago at the latest. Making a complaint was all that I could do myself, in order to “engage” with the complaints procedure. That the council chose not to process my complaint, by engaging with its own complaints procedure, was out of my control, once I had made my complaint. Secondly, I did not acquire much of the evidence I now have, which would enable me to prove my complaint, until 20th February this year, less than three months before the limitation period expired for bringing a Human Rights Act claim in relation to the earliest facts complained of. That is because the council resisted for almost two years a separate claim I had brought in 2012 under the Data Protection Act for subject access to the social work records, and disobeyed for seven months or so an order of the family court to disclose the social work records to me, unreacted. (After the end of the family proceedings, I was awarded damages and costs for the breach of my subject access rights in the Data Protection Act case.) The limitation period for Human Rights Act claims is only one year. The complaints procedure has three stages, two of them quite elaborate, and can take anything up to two years to complete. This incompatibility (between a one year limitation period, and a two year-long complaints procedure) will often make necessary, for anybody with a complaint which, if not addressed satisfactorily by the complaints procedure, they might want to raise in a formal court later, resorting to the exact approach that I have taken. The approach, that is, of bringing a claim against the council in court, which includes seeking an order in “early directions” that council should address the underlying complaint using its complaints procedure, and asking for the court claim itself to be stayed throughout the council’s reluctant use of its own complaints procedure. At the risk of self-repetition, in order to rebut any future potential criticism for being litigious, please let me clarify that, in my Human Rights Act claim, I have expressly asked the court to stay that claim, after having ordered the council to engage its complaints procedure (belatedly), as a means of possible Alternative Dispute Resolution of the stayed Human Rights Act claim. I have also asked the court to order that the expense of the council addressing my complaint at last, using the complaints procedure (ordinarily a free service) which the council has so far been unwilling to deploy, should not be accounted for as costs in the case. I am willing to provide copies of the court pleadings etc to any member of the public with an interest in the legal process, or the important rights and obligations at stake. I would like to hear particularly from any alienated parents, father or mothers alike, or parents at risk of alienation (i.e. their children being turned against them by manipulation on the part of the other parent), who could testify that Cornwall Council has also colluded with the perpetrators of the alienation of their victim children from them. I am already aware of two clients of FNF Plymouth whose bad experience of Cornwall social services has resembled mine. Others in the same boat as me may also be reading this email. The crucial hearing is at 12:15, on Wednesday 13th August 2014, at Truro County Court. John Allman
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 18:54:35 +0000
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