T ose who are eligible for the HCRS will have:


■ Either managed or worked (with or without an employment contract) in a Post Offi ce branch that was using or had installed the Horizon system;


■ Been convicted between September 23, 1996 and December 31, 2018 of off ences including false accounting, theft or fraud (including conspiracy to commit these off ences); and


■ Been based in England, Wales or Northern Ireland (Scotland has a separate system).


Relatives of deceased victims are also able to apply. Freeths’ national team, led by James Hartley and Simon


Hobbs, is now considered to be one of the foremost Dispute Resolution teams in the UK. Simon said: “We are immensely proud to win Law Firm of the


Year, immensely proud of the entire Freeths Dispute Resolution team, who have worked tirelessly for the wronged sub-postmasters, and immensely proud of our Milton Keynes roots. “We would be delighted to hear from any corporates, SMEs or


Simon Hobbs


private clients in Milton Keynes or surrounds who would like to discuss anything with us, across the full gambit of legal services.”


most serious miscarriages of justice in British legal history when hundreds of sub-postmasters were accused of fraud, theft and false accounting by the Post Offi ce over a faulty Horizon IT system. In the face of intransigence, obfuscation, and worse, on the part


of the Post Offi ce, the Freeths team fought to take the case of the 555 sub-postmaster victims to the High Court after two other law fi rms had previously tried and failed. After a painstaking group litigation, judgments led to a successful mediation and a Public Inquiry being set up in 2020, which was converted to a statutory inquiry in June 2021. T e Inquiry is ongoing. Commenting on his experiences of working with Freeths, Sir


Alan Bates said: “A fi rst-class and extremely competent fi rm that came to the aid of a major victims’ group when all else had failed to expose the truth and when justice had eluded the group for many years. Having failed to fi nd legal support for so long, Freeths took the victims on board and helped to deliver outstanding success with judgments that have changed so many lives.” Since the documentary, scores of sub-postmasters have now


had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal. In April 2021, 39 were exonerated in one judgment which described the wrongful convictions as an ‘aff ront to justice’. In all around 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted for theft and false accounting, of whom 236 were jailed. Freeths is now advising postmasters and other people who


are among the hundreds whose criminal convictions are being overturned as a result of the fl awed Horizon IT system. T e launch of the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS)


is benefi ting those who have had to live with wrongful convictions for years and have not yet received compensation after the original High Court rulings secured by Freeths and Justice for Postmasters Alliance (JFSA). Freeths is now urging people to come forward to fi nd out if


they are eligible under the new scheme and can be contacted at OverTurnedConvictionTeam@freeths.co.uk


13


To fi nd out more, visit the Freeths website at www.freeths.co.uk


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