Orange Lose Court Battle Over Bad Signal.

diamonds

gjchester wrote: »

IIRC County court judgements do not get reported in Law papers and as such the only persons who may know about it is the parties in the case. As it's been in the newspaper it may be known wider, but if it's not reported in law papers it's not going to be known to all judges.

I think reporting in the Law papers is what sets a Legal Precident, not because the Daily mail have sensasionalised it

not at all if you bring the judges notice to it in similar circumstances

gjchester

diamonds wrote: »

not at all if you bring the judges notice to it in similar circumstances

If it's not in law papers the judge may not listen.

County court DOES NOT create legal precidence, if as appears to be the case Orange didn't challenge it so the claimant won by default. It's hardly solid legal grounds for a precident to be formed.

Intasun32

gjchester wrote: »

If it's not in law papers the judge may not listen.

County court DOES NOT create legal precidence, if as appears to be the case Orange didn't challenge it so the claimant won by default. It's hardly solid legal grounds for a precident to be formed.

It may not set a precidence but it has started the ball rolling. So much so that even we are discussing it. This seems to me, a genuine case of a mobile phone user not being given the basic services that we all require when using a mobile phone. That being...a signal!

Having read a few reports of this story, nowhere does it say that Orange did not defend the case. In the report I quoted it states that Orange would make no comment.

gjchester

Intasun32 wrote: »

It may not set a precidence but it has started the ball rolling. So much so that even we are discussing it. This seems to me, a genuine case of a mobile phone user not being given the basic services that we all require when using a mobile phone. That being...a signal!

Having read a few reports of this story, nowhere does it say that Orange did not defend the case. In the report I quoted it states that Orange would make no comment.

http://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/4125334.Great_reception_for_court_s_mobile_phone_ruling/

Says Orange didn't defend the case. Which means the bit about how he represented himself is rubbish, if they didn't defend the case the judgment is by default, no self representation is needed.

Interestingly almost every photo he has a different orange phone in his hands.

Look at it this way if this became precident we'd all be on monthly contracts. That would mean the end to phone subsidies as they could not claw them back over time, or alterntively the mobile co's will put in more masts (probably the microcells they can install in shops and offices without having to put up large towers) that all the health protesters have been getting removed for the last xx years. I also bet the contract T&C will be beefed up to ensure this won't happen again. They already state they can't guarantee coverage, they may just make sure this is a something you have to agree to accept as part of taking the contract out. Don't agree to this term, then no contract for you. If all the operators do it then there's not a lot you can do about it, you have to accept it or go without a phone

Long and short is Orange didn't defend it, it's in the small claims and it's hit a few papers. Orange may appeal, or may write this one off. Eitherway it's not a precident, and you can guess the next person who tries will get someone from Orange there to defend there case.

piggeh

gjchester wrote: »

Long and short is Orange didn't defend it, it's in the small claims and it's hit a few papers. Orange may appeal, or may write this one off. Eitherway it's not a precident, and you can guess the next person who tries will get someone from Orange there to defend there case.

Orange will not send someone next time, they didn't send anyone because it's a false economy. If someone else tries it they'll write the next one off as well, until it goes past some 'point of criticality' like has happened with bank charges.

At my company we had an invoice for £4k for ending a contract early. The claim was tenuous as there was non-delivery at certain points and escalation several times previously and they had accepted a verbal instruction when they shouldnt have etc.. we settled at 50/50 prior to it going to court because it is simply not worth a company's time to employ solicitors to represent them on the day, do all the preparatory work etc, for a sum of that amount, let alone a few hundred quid. Orange are in the same boat. Why employ a legal bod who will cost more than the claim itself? As it's small claims court you cannot claim legal fees back.

Personally I might start to make more use of the small claims court as I think most companies would simply not defend any cases for amounts of a few hundred pounds or less.