First posting here to you good people and a complex one! I hope someone can help as I am getting very stressed about this now.

I can't get any Legal Aid of any sort as I own my own house and absolutely nobody will give me any advice (the CAB are totally useless), and the Court is falling over itself to be unhelpful claiming that even telling me which forms I should use constitutes 'free legal advice'. I'm up against the same old walls of officialdom and using unlimited taxpayers money to beat the poor who can't find back. However, if I successfully challenge this it could mean a change in the way our Councils can walk all over us and get away with it so please bear that in mind before you start throwing brickbats as this could help many people not just me.

My Council recently issued a Liability Order (for Council Tax), against me for well over £2000 which was due to be heard a few weeks ago despite knowing I have no savings or income and am disabled and that they owe me a lot of money (long long story). Because of their prolonged dirty-dealings, which I can't go into, I have had to wait until they took this step before I could take any action myself.

In turn I issued a Claim against them for Human Rights abuse on a CPR part 8 and at the same time an Injunction along with it to have the Liability Order halted until the Human Rights issue was dealt with, as the question of whether they correctly assessed (fiddled), my liabily for CT is a part of that Human Rights claim as is the Liability Order itself among other things. Having all my worldly goods seized by bailiffs is hardly conducive to fighting a major Court case.

The Injunction was thrown out because the Judge felt it would be imprudent to interfere with a lower Court (!), and because, as he said, I had 'the right' to defend the Liability Order. I pointed to the section that said I had NO right to defend it unless I had one of the 'listed' defences, but was overruled. I later attended the Liabilty Order proceedings and convinced the magistrate to give me a few weeks to get things properly sorted out, that time is fast running out.

I am now considering an appeal against the refusal of the Injunction as I believe the Judge was wrong in his conclusion. He also refuses to release a transcript of the Injunction hearing unless I appeal it, the reason I wanted a transcript was that I was not happy about the very chummy way he dealt with the barrister from the Council (I now have to pay his costs too), and pre-judging the Human Rights aspect between them (which I had to outline), while constantly telling me that he couldn't give me any advice or guidance. I have even been told that the Human Rights part of my action died along with the Injunction but the Court will not even verify or deny this. Form your own opinions as to why.

My question is this: I need to know if the Judge was correct in telling me I CAN defend the Liabilty Order (other than for the reasons on the list), because I maintain that there is NO defence as this is purely a rubber-stamping exercise en masse. If I CAN defend it, does anyone know where it's specifically written down that I can.

Thanks for any replies and for the help that you are all giving to people in need in this forum.

Hi defendersven - sorry to hear about your situation, it seems you aren't having too much succes so far.

From what I can see, inability to pay isn't a valid reason not to issue a Liability Order as the court is assessing Liability for the debt, nothing more. The proven defences are - that you are not actually liable for the debt, that the council has not asked to pay in the correct way, or that you have already paid the bill and have proof of this.

If the money the council owes you is linked to council tax, then this should be included in your defence otherwise the court will see that as a seperate issue.

Once the liability order has been issued, the council has to consider your circumstances in determining how you will be asked to repay the debt.

Bailiffs can be instructed to visit your home to collect the outstanding balance or to seize goods to sell but they have to gain "peaceful entry" you do not have to let them into your home unless they have been inside before.

You haven't mentioned if you actually owe this money or if it is an error - the latter would be a defence, but the former would be classified as a priority bill. Personally I would focus on reducing the monthly costs of repaying this rather than challenging the judge's comments at this stage.

The Human Rights action will also be longwinded and slow so your priority must be to keep on the right side of the liability order first.

I wasn't aware that owning a house was an automatic barrier to legal aid as its more about ability to pay,but you should use this calculator to establish you own position -

Calculator

(according to my own situation I appear to be eligible and I am not disabled, have a reasonable salary and the usual outgoings - mortgage, utilities etc.)

Best of luck!

PS have you started your claim for the money they owe you?