A broken Royal Mail means a broken Justice System

The Criminal and Civil Justice system relies on the Royal Mail to deliver letters in a regular and timely manner, such that written into the Civil Procedure Rules and the Criminal Procedure rules, it is stated that a letter posted by first class mail is deemed to be received by the recipient two working days later.

On that basis timetables for responding can be set to give certainty to the parties and the Courts.

The Criminal and Civil Procedure Rules have accepted that some documents can be served by email with certain pre agreed limits. However, some documents can only be served by post. First class post is used so as to take advantage of the deemed date of service rule.

For instance, following a vehicle passing through a Speed Camera at a speed over the limit, the police will send a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) to the Registered Keeper. The law says this must be received by the Registered Keeper within 14 days. If it arrives after that time then the police are unable to succeed in a prosecution against the Registered Keeper or any subsequent named driver.

The 14 days are calculated thus; if the alleged offence is committed on the 1^st day of a month, then the NIP must be received by the Registered Keeper on or before the 15^th day of the month.

If the 15th day is a Saturday and the NIP is posted on the Thursday (13^th) then it is deemed to have been delivered on 17^th and therefore out of time. If posted on 12^th (Wednesday) then it is deemed to have been received on the 14^th (Friday).

The Royal Mail have proposed going to a three day a week delivery system. This could have a negative impact on the delivery and deemed delivery of NIPs and other timed deliveries.

For instance in the Civil Courts, a Claim Form and other similar documents have to have been served by a certain date determined by the date the Claim Form is issued. Whilst between solicitors they can, by agreement be served by email or even through the digital claims portal, in a lot of cases it needs to be done by post.

A Claim Form must be served within 4 months of being issued. Using the deemed date of service rule, if the deadline for service is 28^th of any month, and that is a Friday, it can be sent by 1^st class post on any day up to and including the 26^th as it is deemed served on the 28^th.

(Assuming the three delivery days are Monday, Wednesday and Friday).

Moving to the proposed three day delivery system means that if the Claim Form is posted on a Tuesday it may not get delivered until the Friday.

Certainty of delivery cannot be achieved.

The other issues with the delivery of mail already exists in that it can be sporadic and in some post codes almost non-existent. Being at worst once a week or even longer. Some clients have told me they hardly get any post and it depends on the postal worker knowing where they live or where their post box is.

I am often told of clients receiving a letter from a Magistrates Court saying they have been found guilty in their absence, of speeding and or responding to an NIP. They have not received any NIP or reminder and, have not received the Single Justice Procedure Notice (SJPN). If they have received the NIP and replied accordingly they  are then surprised to have received the SJPN.

A reply to a SJPN must be received by the court within 21 days of it being posted out. After the 21^st day, it proceeds at various speeds depending on the individual court to a hearing before a single justice and in the absence of a reply, the named Defendant (usually the Registered Keeper), is found guilty and then is sent Notice of the Sentence, which can be a Notice that they are about to be disqualified depending on the offence alleged.

This requires the recipient, to file a Statutory Declaration, saying they had no knowledge of the proceedings

Problems start, with the NIP not being delivered and therefore the police assuming it hasn't been replied to. The NIP being received and replied to but the police not receiving it. The SJPN not being received and therefore not replied to or a reply being sent but the court not receiving it.

All this adds to the burden of the courts who are already overwhelmed due to a lack of staff, magistrates, or even court rooms.

This all stems from the Royal Mail being no longer reliable.

Post addressed to my office, is not delivered every day despite us having a fairly large presence in Lincoln and therefore a large amount of post to be received.

It seems that priority is given to Recorded and Registered mail but not ordinary mail. This further compounds the issues of regular mail delivery and the legal expectations.

When receiving an NIP in the mail, make a careful note of the date it is received and then seek legal advice.

CONTACT US

Our specialist Road Traffic Law team can assist you with all aspects of motor law. If you require assistance please contact:

Michael Pace TheMotorLawyer
Michael.pace@chattertons.com 
01522 781466