Post Office’s full and final settlement with Horizon scandal victims in plain English
Summary
However, at this point in the legal action, conducted under civil procedure rules, we were encouraged to take part in mediation discussions to settle before we got to trial three, which was due to start in March 2020. Cutting a long story short, and one which is a matter of history, we entered into a compromise settlement agreement by consent with the Post Office because, put simply, we did not have the funds to carry on with the case – and pulling out was not a viable option. In reality, there were many other considerations included in the calculation, but trying to keep it simple, everything extended from just the legal points won in court from the first two trials. So when you see the Post Office, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Her Majesty’s Government bandying around the phrase “full and final settlement”, in actuality they are only referring to the issues that formed part of the first two trials, although they would have you think everything had been addressed. And as we already owed £46m in costs, it meant the group of 555 subpostmasters could not afford to pursue the Post Office further as it had unlimited funds available from its sole shareholder, the government.