Legally Stupid: Suing Yourself
You might think we are going to tell you a story about some loony who thinks he’s gamed the system…
…but this crass idiocy has been carried out by something far more stupid than that. Islington Council. And it’s not alone.
The suffering of Capt. John Joseph Yossarian altogether failed to convince the world that the power of bureaucracy can lead to an insane system. If it’s proof you need…
The Times: London councils routinely take themselves to court over disputed parking tickets their wardens issue to their own vehicles, it has emerged.
In one case, Islington Council not only issued a parking ticket to itself, but then pursued itself at the Parking Adjudicator and then asked for costs against itself.
Barrie Segal, author of The Parking Ticket Awards: Crazy Councils, Meter Madness & Traffic Warden Hell, who uncovered the practice, says that councils also issue parking tickets against other councils, and pursue these cases all the way to the Parking Adjudicator.
In the brilliantly ridiculous Islington case the Parking Adjudicator reached a conclusion that reads like something straight out of Joseph Heller’s original Catch22:
The bewildered Adjudicator did not award costs, saying: “The legal status of the two parties in this appeal amounted to one and the same.”
Yossarian: “the only way to survive such an insane system is to be insane oneself”
Hat tip Lowering the Bar
March 3, 2010
Insane indeed. It’s funny how far the great British Empire has fallen. Another decade of collective guilt, political and economic mismanagement and we will have to stand on tip-toe to see out of the gutter.