Injunction in addition to monetary claim?

Undervalued

DullGreyGuy said:

Small Claims Court is one of the tracks through the County Court and can deal with some injunctions but most will go into Fast Track or Multi-Track. 

Whilst claim value is one dimension used to determine which track the claim is assigned to the estimated time for the hearing is the big one. Small track is 1-2 hours tops, Fast Track is up to 1 day, Multi-track is over 1 day. Obviously sometimes the courts get it wrong and think a matter will be short but it actually takes much longer but it's a reasonable yardstick. 

Where there is a much higher chance of having to pay significant costs if you lose.

DullGreyGuy

Undervalued said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Small Claims Court is one of the tracks through the County Court and can deal with some injunctions but most will go into Fast Track or Multi-Track. 

Whilst claim value is one dimension used to determine which track the claim is assigned to the estimated time for the hearing is the big one. Small track is 1-2 hours tops, Fast Track is up to 1 day, Multi-track is over 1 day. Obviously sometimes the courts get it wrong and think a matter will be short but it actually takes much longer but it's a reasonable yardstick. 

Where there is a much higher chance of having to pay significant costs if you lose.

Also forgot to add the new Intermediary Track that sits between Fast and Multi. 

Fast and Intermediary are a fixed recoverable costs and so yes the exposure is more than Small Track but it's not the near open chequebook of Multi-Track 

Bumble_Bee_4

Thanks Alderbank - I found that info that you copied and pasted too, which is what made me think an injunction could be asked for.  https://www.smallclaimscourtgenie.co.uk/product/ultimate-guide-to-the-small-claims-track-product-page/  The 'about' page claims this is written by a retired solicitor, but who knows?  Best not to take everything at face value on the internet  

Thanks Lin Lui for info about the Equality and Human Rights Commission.  I will pursue that.

And yes I have tried councillors in addition to council officers and have got nowhere.

By the way, I am not the affected party but have been trying to get something changed.  It's the affected people who will try court action, and no they can't afford solicitors, which is why the small claims procedure is attractive. 

Lin Lui you say the jurisdiction for Equality Act claims is the county court, not the small claims court.  But I didn't think there was a small claims court.  Aren't small claims just one track available at a county court?  Ah - just seen DullGreyGuy's responses - thanks for clarifying.

But back to my original question - regardless of the what or why of my example - has anyone tried to obtain an injunction via the small claims track?  

LinLui

Bumble_Bee_4 said:

Thanks Alderbank - I found that info that you copied and pasted too, which is what made me think an injunction could be asked for.  https://www.smallclaimscourtgenie.co.uk/product/ultimate-guide-to-the-small-claims-track-product-page/  The 'about' page claims this is written by a retired solicitor, but who knows?  Best not to take everything at face value on the internet  

Thanks Lin Lui for info about the Equality and Human Rights Commission.  I will pursue that.

And yes I have tried councillors in addition to council officers and have got nowhere.

By the way, I am not the affected party but have been trying to get something changed.  It's the affected people who will try court action, and no they can't afford solicitors, which is why the small claims procedure is attractive. 

Lin Lui you say the jurisdiction for Equality Act claims is the county court, not the small claims court.  But I didn't think there was a small claims court.  Aren't small claims just one track available at a county court?  Ah - just seen DullGreyGuy's responses - thanks for clarifying.

But back to my original question - regardless of the what or why of my example - has anyone tried to obtain an injunction via the small claims track?  

Your problem though is that you can claim the compensation at the small claims court, but you have no idea if compensation is due. So you would have to ask the court to decide if the failure of the equality duty actually happened, and that is not something they can do. It would have to go to a full County Court hearing (assuming that is the correct jurisdiction).

There is a similar but much better known equivalence in employment law. If your employer (for example) owes you money, then you could claim through the small claims court (or an employment tribunal - but leave that aside for now). The court will expect you to show evidence that the employer owes you money. If you can do that (and sometimes, if you can't but they don't believe the employer) then they will order the employer to pay up. Yes? However, lets say that the employer failed to make a reasonable adjustment (keeping the theme of disability) and as a result you couldn't return to work from sick leave and lost wages. You make a claim to the county court (whether small claims or not) for £xxx which is the loss between your wage and sick pay. The county court has an amount that you are claiming, but they cannot decide the the employer should have made the reasonable adjustment - because the jurisdiction for that claim is an employment tribunal, not the county court. They cannot award or enforce anything without a determination on the claim of discrimination - there are many grounds upon which an employer can argue that an adjustment is not reasonable.

That is probably the closest comparison to what you are describing. You cannot "place a value" on the alleged failure in the equality duty, but even if you could, you would first have to prove that your position vis-a-vis the grounds of the claim (i.e. that the local authority had actually failed) was true. That is not a quick claim. In fact it is one that could be bogged down in legal argument for a very long time. It simply isn't, in my opinion (and the opinion of our authorities most Senior Equalities Officer because i asked him to look at this for you) likely to get you what you want. Costs for you will escalate, complex legal arguments will ensue, and the local authority will have a shed load of lawyers working against you. I can confidently predict that because if they haven't responded to your "ask" so far, they either think you are wrong (and you must consider that - as I said before, people often think things about equality laws that simply aren't true); or they will fight you into the ground. I say that because actually, it is just so much easier to fob people off and be seen to do something whilst not actually doing it. To be honest, in 90% of cases it is just easy and cheaper to fob people off. And I would wonder why they aren't doing that.

I would seriously leave it to the EHRC. If you have a case they are usually responsive and dogged, and have a much better chance of getting something changed. If they don't think there is a case, I'd lay bets there isn't. And sometimes just their intervention can get some movement - a compromise may be better than nothing.

Alderbank

Very reasoned and helpful advice @LinLui but bear in mind the OP ('you') is not the litigant.

The OP says they know some people who have been affected in some way by the council.

The OP seems to have witnessed something which he feels is not fair but doesn't want to see a claim for compensation or any other financial burden placed on the council.

Am I right in thinking that defending a case at Strasbourg would be a significant drain on a council's resources?

LinLui

Alderbank said:

Very reasoned and helpful advice @LinLui but bear in mind the OP ('you') is not the litigant.

The OP says they know some people who have been affected in some way by the council.

The OP seems to have witnessed something which he feels is not fair but doesn't want to see a claim for compensation or any other financial burden placed on the council.

Am I right in thinking that defending a case at Strasbourg would be a significant drain on a council's resources?

Strasbourg?  I think you read the initials wrong???

ECHR = Strasbourg
EHRC = Office in London!

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/

But yes I know the OP isn't the person making the claim. Which is another good reason to ask if they are as confident as they sound. For example, how many times does "the employer must make reasonable adjustments" get interpreted on this board as "the employer must make adjustments because I think they are reasonable". Not remotely the same thing. People seem to have a blind spot in getting the fact that an adjustment might not be reasonable!

user1977

LinLui said:

Alderbank said:

Very reasoned and helpful advice @LinLui but bear in mind the OP ('you') is not the litigant.

The OP says they know some people who have been affected in some way by the council.

The OP seems to have witnessed something which he feels is not fair but doesn't want to see a claim for compensation or any other financial burden placed on the council.

Am I right in thinking that defending a case at Strasbourg would be a significant drain on a council's resources?

People seem to have a blind spot in getting the fact that an adjustment might not be reasonable!

And lots of different adjustments may be reasonable - it doesn't mean the employer has to do the one which the employee prefers.

Bumble_Bee_4

Thanks for all the warnings - noted and will be passed on.

LinLui

user1977 said:

LAnd don'tinLui said:

Alderbank said:

Very reasoned and helpful advice @LinLui but bear in mind the OP ('you') is not the litigant.

The OP says they know some people who have been affected in some way by the council.

The OP seems to have witnessed something which he feels is not fair but doesn't want to see a claim for compensation or any other financial burden placed on the council.

Am I right in thinking that defending a case at Strasbourg would be a significant drain on a council's resources?

People seem to have a blind spot in getting the fact that an adjustment might not be reasonable!

And lots of different adjustments may be reasonable - it doesn't mean the employer has to do the one which the employee prefers.

And don't get me started on the "I'm entitled to with from home.." flexible "working" request!

DullGreyGuy

Bumble_Bee_4 said:
But back to my original question - regardless of the what or why of my example - has anyone tried to obtain an injunction via the small claims track?  

To directly answer the question - I haven't 

The other issue is you dont choose the track, you fill in the claim form, the defendant decides if they are going to defend or not. Assuming they do defend then a Direction's questionnaire is sent out and only when thats received back does a judge make the decision if the case goes to Small, Fast, Intermediary or Multi Track. Some people will try and influence the decision by reducing what they are asking for to get into a lower track but ultimately the judge has significant discretion