The Isle of Wight dad, Jon Platt, who is being taken to the Supreme Court by the Isle of Wight council for non-payment of school absence fines, has announced that he has been awarded Legal Aid to fight his case.
‘No case to answer’
Isle of Wight magistrates and the High Court both ruled that Mr Platt had “no case to answer” as his daughter had regular attendance when he took her out of school for a family holiday.
However, the Department for Education requested the Isle of Wight council apply to take the case to the Supreme Court.
‘Equality of arms’
A crowdfunding appeal to raise funds for legal fees for the Supreme Court appeal case had attracted over £10,000 from parents around the country.
However, over the weekend, Mr Platt advised those following the case that he’d been awarded Legal Aid to fight the case. He was potentially at risk of losing his home if the case was lost.
Announcing the news on Facebook, Jon said,
“After months of work by my legal team, yesterday the High Court granted an application providing me with Legal Aid to defend this case at the Supreme Court.
“Our application was on the basis that, for these matters to be properly argued (and for parents to have confidence in the outcome) both parties must have ‘equality of arms’. The High Court agreed.
“This means that, win or lose, I do not have to pay the huge cost of this appeal.”
What happens to donations?
The question of what should happen to the funds donated through the crowdfunding appeal has been put back to those who contributed.
Jon went on to say,
“Of course that means that I don’t want anyone to make any more donations to the Justgiving page. It was huge generosity by 810 people who between them stumped up an amazing £10,557 to fight this case. I promised that I would not keep the money if, for any reason it was not needed, so now I need suggestions for what should happen with this money. Here are the options:
- Anyone who wants their donation back please comment to that effect and I will ask the Justgiving people if they can identify those donations and reverse them.
- The money could be used to help other parents fight their cases. Right now, despite the fact that most local authorities are issuing FAR less penalty notices and are prosecuting far less parents, some local authorities are still dragging lots of parents to court. I would like to do deal with a solicitor / barrister to represent parents whose children had excellent attendance (over 92%) but who are facing trial in Magistrates Court. I believe that if we can win a few cases in places like Lancashire and Swindon, those local authorities will have to think long and hard about prosecuting other parents in the future. Those cases that we ‘fund’ and hopefully win, may well result in the local authority having to pay the costs so the fund may not actually have to pay out, just be there as a ‘guarantee’ to protect parents if they lose.
- Alternatively we just donate all the funds to a charity like the NSPCC or Childline? Very much like to hear everyone’s opinion?
Update imminent
At last month’s full council meeting (read the live coverage) leader of the Isle of Wight council, Jonathan Bacon, said they were expecting this month to have an update on the position of the Supreme Court case.
Image: © with kind permission of Tom Harrison/ Solent News & Photo Agency
