Tweet
(I am not sure which forum this is suitable for, so I'll place it here. Please feel free to move it if necessary).
I am a 66-year-old man who has been suffering from severe clinical depression continuously since 1999. I am the tenant of a housing association, and have had a lot of problems with the organisation over a number of years, and consequently, I have sent a number of written complaints to it. In August 2018, it applied for an antisocial behaviour injunction just because of these complaints, even though it was clear that every complaint I made was substantiated, and was couched it polite and unthreatening language. I was very hurt at this, because there is nothing about me that could be described as antisocial: I consider myself to be a very respectable and considerate person.
I hired a barrister by direct access, and he confirmed that I had not in any way breached the 2014 Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act, the act under which the injunction application was made. However, he said that if I defended the claim, it would jeopardise my chances of getting accommodation from another housing association, as the mere fact that things had got to the litigation stage would go on my file and make a future landord think that I was 'trouble'. As I was desperate to find another landlord other than this housing association, which had made my life so unhappy, I reluctantly agreed to mediation instead, as the barrister advised me to.
All the injunction application demanded was that I should limit my correspondence with the housing association, and I naturally assumed that this was the only thing it would demand from mediation. However, a few hours after the deadline for backing out of mediation had passed, I received a position statement from the housing association (in an email from my barrister) demanding all sorts of things that I would never have agreed to. Along with it was another email saying that if I backed out of mediation after the deadline, I would have to pay the full fee, which was over £1,500, a colossal amount for someone like me. I thought might also have had to pay the fee the housing association would be paying, bringing the sum to over £3,000, which terrified me.
It was only weeks after the mediation that I looked at these emails again and noticed from the headers that they had been sent to my barrister several days before the deadline, but he had not forwarded them until seven hours after the deadline had expired. I had told my barrister before the mediation that I wanted to back out but realised I could not do so because the deadline had passed. If he had admitted that my missing the deadline was his fault, and was therefore beyond control, I would have backed out, reasoning that I had a good defence for not paying the fee, but he just kept quiet about the fact that he had held onto those emails until the deadine had passed.
I felt I was trapped into going along to the mediation meeting, because I could not afford to pay what might be over £3,000, for nothing. The mediation was a disaster, and at the end, my barrister presented me with an agreement whose every clause I vehemently did not wish to sign my name to. However, I knew that the housing association had already rescheduled the injunction application hearing, so it would certainly take me to Court if I did not sign. My barrister told me that if I defended the injunction application, it could easily cost me a further £10,000, and I just do not have that sort of money.
So I was in a position where all I had done was make a number of well-substantiated complaints, but I now had to sign an agreement against my will, having thrown away over £2,000 (the mediation fee plus the barrister's fee), or else try to find a further £10,000, which was just impossible. So, not knowing what else to do, I signed. It was only after the document came back to me after being signed by a judge that I even learned that it was called a Tomlin Order - the barrister had never mentioned the term.
Signing that document has had a disastrous effect upon my mental health - within days, my depression deepened, and it has been getting worse and worse ever since. I cannot think of anything else except this Tomlin Order, and how it has tied my hands.
This is why I need some advice. There is only one thing that can help me achieve closure: I want to bring this matter to Court, show a judge that I was placed in a position where I had to sign this order against my will, and see if anything can be done about it.
I've done a bit of research, and it seems the biggest stumbling block is that challenges to Tomlin orders must be made within a year, and since I signed the agreement in September 2018, I'm way beyond that. My only defence is that this business wrecked my mental health so much, until very recently I have hardly been able to function normally - just taking basic care of myself has been almost beyond me, so being able to prepare a legal challenge of this sort, as a Litigant In Person, has until now been out of the question. Would it be possible to apply for 'leave' to present a case out of time like this, citing my mental health?
Even if the chances of getting the order set aside are minimal, it would be very therapeutic just to bring this matter to Court, and tell a judge exactly how I was trapped into signing the order.
That is really the only advice I want: how do I apply to have this Tomlin Order set aside, if I am acting as a Litigant In Person? What is the procedure, and which court do I apply to?
I really hope someone can help me in this. Thank you.
I am a 66-year-old man who has been suffering from severe clinical depression continuously since 1999. I am the tenant of a housing association, and have had a lot of problems with the organisation over a number of years, and consequently, I have sent a number of written complaints to it. In August 2018, it applied for an antisocial behaviour injunction just because of these complaints, even though it was clear that every complaint I made was substantiated, and was couched it polite and unthreatening language. I was very hurt at this, because there is nothing about me that could be described as antisocial: I consider myself to be a very respectable and considerate person.
I hired a barrister by direct access, and he confirmed that I had not in any way breached the 2014 Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act, the act under which the injunction application was made. However, he said that if I defended the claim, it would jeopardise my chances of getting accommodation from another housing association, as the mere fact that things had got to the litigation stage would go on my file and make a future landord think that I was 'trouble'. As I was desperate to find another landlord other than this housing association, which had made my life so unhappy, I reluctantly agreed to mediation instead, as the barrister advised me to.
All the injunction application demanded was that I should limit my correspondence with the housing association, and I naturally assumed that this was the only thing it would demand from mediation. However, a few hours after the deadline for backing out of mediation had passed, I received a position statement from the housing association (in an email from my barrister) demanding all sorts of things that I would never have agreed to. Along with it was another email saying that if I backed out of mediation after the deadline, I would have to pay the full fee, which was over £1,500, a colossal amount for someone like me. I thought might also have had to pay the fee the housing association would be paying, bringing the sum to over £3,000, which terrified me.
It was only weeks after the mediation that I looked at these emails again and noticed from the headers that they had been sent to my barrister several days before the deadline, but he had not forwarded them until seven hours after the deadline had expired. I had told my barrister before the mediation that I wanted to back out but realised I could not do so because the deadline had passed. If he had admitted that my missing the deadline was his fault, and was therefore beyond control, I would have backed out, reasoning that I had a good defence for not paying the fee, but he just kept quiet about the fact that he had held onto those emails until the deadine had passed.
I felt I was trapped into going along to the mediation meeting, because I could not afford to pay what might be over £3,000, for nothing. The mediation was a disaster, and at the end, my barrister presented me with an agreement whose every clause I vehemently did not wish to sign my name to. However, I knew that the housing association had already rescheduled the injunction application hearing, so it would certainly take me to Court if I did not sign. My barrister told me that if I defended the injunction application, it could easily cost me a further £10,000, and I just do not have that sort of money.
So I was in a position where all I had done was make a number of well-substantiated complaints, but I now had to sign an agreement against my will, having thrown away over £2,000 (the mediation fee plus the barrister's fee), or else try to find a further £10,000, which was just impossible. So, not knowing what else to do, I signed. It was only after the document came back to me after being signed by a judge that I even learned that it was called a Tomlin Order - the barrister had never mentioned the term.
Signing that document has had a disastrous effect upon my mental health - within days, my depression deepened, and it has been getting worse and worse ever since. I cannot think of anything else except this Tomlin Order, and how it has tied my hands.
This is why I need some advice. There is only one thing that can help me achieve closure: I want to bring this matter to Court, show a judge that I was placed in a position where I had to sign this order against my will, and see if anything can be done about it.
I've done a bit of research, and it seems the biggest stumbling block is that challenges to Tomlin orders must be made within a year, and since I signed the agreement in September 2018, I'm way beyond that. My only defence is that this business wrecked my mental health so much, until very recently I have hardly been able to function normally - just taking basic care of myself has been almost beyond me, so being able to prepare a legal challenge of this sort, as a Litigant In Person, has until now been out of the question. Would it be possible to apply for 'leave' to present a case out of time like this, citing my mental health?
Even if the chances of getting the order set aside are minimal, it would be very therapeutic just to bring this matter to Court, and tell a judge exactly how I was trapped into signing the order.
That is really the only advice I want: how do I apply to have this Tomlin Order set aside, if I am acting as a Litigant In Person? What is the procedure, and which court do I apply to?
I really hope someone can help me in this. Thank you.
