Judge Blasts Solicitor In Staffordshire Care Homes Case

The solicitor who mounted repeated legal action against Staffordshire County Council’s Changing Lives programme should have known it would fail, a High Court judge has ruled.

Yvonne Hossack, acting on behalf of Residents Action Group for the Elderly (RAGE), asked on three occasions for the council’s policy to be put under the scrutiny of a judicial review.

The policy considers how residential care for the elderly can best be provided and includes the option of closing council-run homes. Ms Hossack said the council’s handling of the matter and the uncertainty it fostered needed to be looked at.

Each time the court refused the request.

Justice Wyn Williams told the High Court: “In short, these proceedings were completely unnecessary. They were doomed to failure and a reasonably competent solicitor should have known as much.”

The council filed the wasted cost order in August on the grounds that Ms Hossack had strayed beyond the role of legal representative and had “instigated, managed and maintained the action as part of a campaign”. Yesterday’s hearing concluded the matter.

Although Ms Hossack did not achieve the judicial review of council procedure, she claimed mini-victories as the council was forced to state its position in open court, guaranteeing that no decision had been made and consultation could affect decisions.

But the authority said it was having to fight in the courts when it wanted to focus on explaining Changing Lives to residents.

Councillor Susan Woodward, cabinet member for healthier communities and older people, said: “The outcome of this judgement completely supports what we have said all along.”

The council asked for its costs to be recouped from Ms Hossacks, based in Kettering, Northamptonshire, and a previous winner of Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year.

But the court ruled that while Ms Hossack was wrong to mount the legal challenge, any such order would render her bankrupt, so would not be made.