Council in Contempt of Court

kissmeimposh

Any injustice by a Council affects everyone ultimately and I certainly would not look the other way just becuase it doesn't affect me directly. Your statement seems to indicate that if it doesn't threaten me directly I should just let the Council get on with acting to someone's detriment unjustly.

silvercar

You are being very defensive.

I can't see the council giving you much information if you are not directly involved. From your other thread you are fighting the council on another issue, so I wonder if you become known to them as a difficult customer, whether this helps your own case.

I bit of background doesn't do any harm and helps posters see where you are coming from.

hodgester

okay, okay I'll throw my two penneth in :rolleyes:

The OP appears in his somewhat unstated role, one can only assume as a 'Mckenzie Friend' in the court room and outside of it, to be suggesting that the Council have committed a contempt of court, by issuing a 14 day letter.

Now taking away from the immediate fact that the Magistrate had no right to award a conditional liability order (this is not within their jurisdiction, it is merely within their scope to decide if a liability order is to be awarded or not, based on the legislation), the question is where the Authority acting in contempt of the judgement by sending a Demand for Information?

Well no, they weren't. The law states that a debtor is demanded by law to provide the information requested on the form within 14 days (there is no scope within the legislation for this to be deferred based on a conditional order as no such thing exists). There is no obligation, except for their own collection rates and the good of the community, for the council to act on the information received in that document. Only by acting on that information, could it be considered 'contempt'.

if I were the authority, I would have rejected the request for a conditional order and if refused by the magistrate (and the clerk who should be guiding the magistrate away from such crass decision making) then applied to a higher court to overrule his/her decision.

I've said it before and i will say it again, the average magistrate is a buffoon nand has no place in a court of law. too often they get diverted from their intended role of enforcing the law towards making 'moral' judgements. Any decent clerk of the court would have told this magistrate to observe the law and keep his ses of fair play out of it and then this situation would never have arisen.