Report comment

Whilst I accept that the firm acted incompetently and unprofessionally and deserve to be punished the net result is a complete travesty of justice.

The one thing that's absolutely clear is that it wasn't the defendant;s fault. Yet they are now in the position of being unable to defend the claim and having to find £200k plus, no doubt, another few tens of thousands in costs. That's the sort of debt that could result in insolvency for many companies.

Yes, in theory they have a cast iron case for negligence against their solicitors, but even cast iron cases can take months to settle, and in the meantime who's to say that British Gas won't issue a winding up petition and put the company out of business? What good is a negligence claim to them then?

It also produces a windfall for BG who may for all we know have had a completely unmeritorious case.

To allow such a gross injustice to be perpetrated on an innocent defendant simply because some hapless trainee forgot to file a form on time is utterly absurd and unjust.

The situation could - and should - have been dealt with quite adequately by a hefty wasted costs order against Bower & Bailey, thereby punishing the party that was actually at fault rather than a completely innocent party.

To quote the great Mr Hislop, "If this is justice then I'm a banana!"