It's data protection gone mad!

[Ginger Yellow]

You hear a lot of stupid GDPR related claims being made these days (my "favourite" is conferences that refuse to share delegate lists, when they could just ask permission when people register), but today's really takes the biscuit. Apparently it's a common practice for prison authorities in the UK (England & Wales anyway) to refuse to confirm service of court documents on prisoners on data protection grounds.

[Aitch]

Here in Holland, you have to register where you live with the council. We started getting loads of bills for someone else (always the same person), ranging from speeding fines to tax demands. I went to the council and asked if that person had registered himself at my address. The council person said she couldn't tell me who was registered as living in my house because it was confidential information.

[Guy Profumo]

We do as well

It's called "council tax" and you make a declaration as to the number of people living at your home

[Eggchaser]

You should try getting information out of a bank or share registrar concerning a deceased person's interest in a joint account or shareholding. They say that because legal ownership passes to the survivor on death, they can't reveal anything about the asset because GDPR.

I have pointed out that this may be true post death, but up to and including the date of death, the deceased had every right to know what was happening with the joint asset and this right passes to the executors. This sometimes works.

I was also pleasantly surprised to be able to talk to a human being at Royal Bank of Scotland who knew what I was asking for today. Given that you now have to upload documents to a portal with a unique login (so handy when you have 100 different estate files) rather than sending them via post (another way to disenfranchise the computer illiterate and cut headcount) this was most welcome.

Also, twats who send jpegs or photos embedded in emails when you specifically ask them for a PDF formatted document. Again.

[ChrisJ]

Wait until you get the email reminding you that you can't pin up the list of kids who have milk.

[steviecowden]

You hear a lot of stupid GDPR related claims being made these days (my "favourite" is conferences that refuse to share delegate lists, when they could just ask permission when people register), but today's really takes the biscuit. Apparently it's a common practice for prison authorities in the UK (England & Wales anyway) to refuse to confirm service of court documents on prisoners on data protection grounds.

id be surprised at this-you fuck with the courts they fuck you back with bells on
in scotland we usually refuse to accept court documentation(theyre usually signed for mail or someone in person requesting a signature) unless we can confirm someone is actually in an establishment(courts have a bad habit of sending indictments at the last minute and once you accept it its your problem-you really dont want to be accepting an indictment to be served by midnight at 5pm at inverness prison and then discovering the individual was transferred to kilmarnock a couple of days ago).once its confirmed and signed for i think they take it as read that we've served it

[Ginger Yellow]

I was surprised too! But when the lawyer brought it up, the judge said it had happened quite a few times, even though the argument was "arrant nonsense". I don't know for certain if they got confirmation, but supposedly they did use his prison number, not just a name.

I am bound to say, I have now had a number of orders where there has simply been an absence of communications from the prison authorities, where they simply don’t engage with the court.

He basically ended up saying if they don't cooperate, he's going to make someone at the prison part of the proceedings so they can be bound by an order.

To be fair, looking at the written submissions, it seems they were able to serve claim forms and application notices, just not confirm whether other correspondence had been received.

[Simon G]

id be surprised at this-you fuck with the courts they fuck you back with bells on
in scotland we usually refuse to accept court documentation(theyre usually signed for mail or someone in person requesting a signature) unless we can confirm someone is actually in an establishment(courts have a bad habit of sending indictments at the last minute and once you accept it its your problem-you really dont want to be accepting an indictment to be served by midnight at 5pm at inverness prison and then discovering the individual was transferred to kilmarnock a couple of days ago).once its confirmed and signed for i think they take it as read that we've served it

So this is a common thing in Scottish courts? I thought I may have been a one-off. A few years back I received an order to be a witness in Glasgow to an insurance fraud case that I'd been dealing with. I didn't even know the case had got to court. The order was hand-delivered by Gloucestershire Police at around 3pm on a Saturday. The court case was Monday at 9am. Fortunately, there were 7 other members of staff also called as witnesses, so we were able to arrange an emergency flight from Birmingham and Premier Inn through work on the Sunday. Only to be told in the court at 8:45 on Monday that we weren't needed.

Luckily for me, as I hate flying, no flights were available to get home, so the court paid train fare. That 5 hour train journey was lovely.

[steviecowden]

So this is a common thing in Scottish courts? I thought I may have been a one-off. A few years back I received an order to be a witness in Glasgow to an insurance fraud case that I'd been dealing with. I didn't even know the case had got to court. The order was hand-delivered by Gloucestershire Police at around 3pm on a Saturday. The court case was Monday at 9am. Fortunately, there were 7 other members of staff also called as witnesses, so we were able to arrange an emergency flight from Birmingham and Premier Inn through work on the Sunday. Only to be told in the court at 8:45 on Monday that we weren't needed.

Luckily for me, as I hate flying, no flights were available to get home, so the court paid train fare. That 5 hour train journey was lovely.

they usually give a bit more notice for court dates but they tend to leave it dangerously late for the serving of indictments and the likes;bear in mind,a guy might be on remand for extremely serious charges,if his papers arent served on time he will probably walk,if theyre not delivered until late on the final day and unrelated serious stuff is occuring that evening they might be overlooked or,as has happened,a manager might be offered serious inducements to "forget" to serve them

[Moonlight Shadow]

A quick question for the legal minds on here, any of you have experience in housing/dispute matters, I have an issue I'd like an opinion about....?

[Nocturnal Submission]

A quick question for the legal minds on here, any of you have experience in housing/dispute matters, I have an issue I'd like an opinion about....?

Lobachevsky might be a good person to ask. I think he works in the housing area.

[Moonlight Shadow]

Lobachevsky might be a good person to ask. I think he works in the housing area.

Thanks, I might pester him!