Legal advice for former parish councillor

Question

Hello there.
Although I'm fairly new to this group I was a parish councillor for several years but lost my seat at the last election.

Along with my former councillor colleagues I worked hard to ensure our small parish was run efficiently and always put all residents first.

Since the new council took over I and former councillors have been accused of dishonesty and working against the interests of residents.
Is there any way I can get access to legal representation to pursue a defamation case?

If not does anyone know of a legal firm who have experience of taking on this sort of case?

TIA

Answer 1

Pursuing a claim for defamation is only for the rich and/or famous who usually use Richcon de Reya LLP, Africa House, Kingsway, London.

You will need very deep pockets!

As a matter of interests - who is it who is accusing you - what precisely are the they accusing you of - what evidence do they have to support their view..

Comments

The new chairman and a cllr have stated:
"The records we now have in our possession since the clerk left show a truly awful plot by the old team spanning years with hard evidence that residents were misled at every opportunity it seems their sole goal was destruction and division."
No evidence has yet been provided.
Of the 9 former councillors eight were replaced. The new councillors are now trying to pressure the 9th cllr, the former chairman,  to resign. The Clerk has already resigned after being threatened by one of the new councillors.

---

I'm hesitating to say what I think because I know absolutely nothing about the background or other circumstances.

All I will say is that the phrase "the records we have in our possession ..." should be speaking to you.

Lets see what others think.

---

I have now seen the records and it's a couple of sets of notes taken at a meeting of a working party. I think I can prove that their claims are without merit but who can I complain to? The local monitoring offer says it's nothing to do with him.

Answer 2

Depends on what evidence you have as to what’s been said and what proof they have to substantiate it
But if you’ve done nothing wrong then their allegations are groundless and I suppose you could lodge a complaint against individual Councillors on principle 6 Honesty

Comments

The allegations are groundless and I think I can prove that they are by using their own minutes and notes documents on their website. Who would I submit a complaint to?

---

Send me a DM with your email address and I’ll give you a hand but be warned once you do this even if you are proved right you will have burnt your bridges with your PC

Answer 3

Would you be able to make a Freedom of information request or subject access request for the records? I assume that is what John1706 is hinting at?

Comments

I made two FOI requests but the chairman said he could not respond because the questions related to charity which is not subject to FOI requests. Which is truw but I only asked questions relating to things which had been said at parish council meetings.

Answer 4

we had a very similar situation where the clerk repeatedly in front of many witnesses slandered a councillor and continued to do so even when the chair instructed her not to do so this was all recorded 

a large firm but not Richcon de Reya LLP where consulted clear advice to commence proceedings against the clerk the evidence was over whelming plus not all records disclosed at the time to save old councillors further embarrassment ,in my business life if a firm ever said this was just an example of documents held you can bet your bottom dollar they have a great deal more that would be devastating , as mentioned by a contributer litigation is expensive but with the right evidence context and deep pockets very rewarding having done this on 2 occassions 

Comments

Thank you for this. How much does it cost to get advice from a solicitor and can you recommend one?