My lender has responded to a counterclaim that I was denied a fair hearing when they obtained a suspended possession order (I was not notified of the hearing at my foreign address - which the lender and solicitors knew)by claiming that the Human Rights Act does not cover them because they are a private organisation. Is this true? If they deliberately misled the county court can they be found to have broken other laws? eg Law of Contempt?

-- Mary Contrary (julywarned@hotmail.com), May 18, 2002

Answers

Not that I know what I'm talking about......

If the court found against you on the basis of what was presented before the court then you don't have a claim under the HRA against the court. If what was presented was false, then you are able to appeal against the decision in the normal way.

The HRA comes into play if the court ignores statements which result in your rights being violated, by the court.

For instance; If you have an Information Commissioners Final Assessment confirming that your DPA rights have bene violated, and you back this up with proof of losses, together with medical proof that you suffered stress. Then the could must find for you, if they do not, then you have a valid claim against the court under the HRA.

Your rights under the HRA are quite strong, but they are also very explicit as well. The court has to be seen to be ignoring proof, and finding for the other side before you have a HRA claim.

There is a bit of information on such cases on the web, but talk to a HRA solicitor.

Good Luck.

-- Harry (pearson_harry@hotmail.com), May 18, 2002.

Thanks for your answer Harry. I have no idea of whether or not untrue statements were made about me in the court hearing, because it had already happened by the time I found out about it. My case is that by not revealing my German address to the court so that the court could properly serve notice of the impending hearing on me in Germany, my lenders' solicitors, and my lender by complicity, infringed my rights to a fair hearing under the Human Rights Act.

-- Mary Contrary (julywarned@hotmail.com), May 18, 2002.