Our case involved just a few months of arrears (back taxes) rather than years,we were not on benefits and we spoke English as our native language.
Equal Justice Under Law’ are the words chiseled in stone above theentrance to the United States Supreme Court building in Washington. Idid not notice whether any similarly stirring sentiment adorns thesomewhat less impressive frontage of a certain magistrates’ court inEast London but I rather suspect that it does not.
My wife andI are three months behind with our council tax payments to the LondonBorough of Tower Hamlets and as a result we had to appear in court.
Wehoped that if we promised to clear our debt of £549 by March 31, theend of the fiscal year, the magistrates would waive the additional £75cost of our summons.
[…]
On our day in court, the magistrates, both of whom had public-schoolaccents, worked slowly and carefully through each case preceding oursand were punctiliously fair to all the defaulters, who were of manydifferent nationalities.
Interpreters were provided, all sortsof holy books were made available for oath-taking and a lawyer waspresent to explain the finer points of the law.
In two instances, the magistrates gently admonished those before them for obvious lies and evasions.
Itdidn’t seem to bother them that not a single defendant was completelyself-supporting. Employed or not, all were on some sort of benefits andthe magistrates carefully took this into account when assessingrepayments.
In each of the four cases, thousands of pounds hadbeen owed over a considerable time but the magistrates generouslycharged no interest, wrote off a significant proportion of the arrearsand made no mention of court costs.
The most flagrant evaderwas ordered to repay £20 a week – he’d owed £5,000 for some years – theothers were let off with repayments of £10 per week.
We wereeasily distinguishable from the other defendants because we’d made theeffort to dress in a manner we felt appropriate for a court appearance.Also, our case involved just a few months of arrears rather than years,we were not on benefits and we spoke English as our native language.
Our turn. Into thy hands, Blind Justice.