BREAKING: Northumbria and PMAB’s Regulation 37 methodology DEFEATED in a judicial review.
Fisher, R (on the application of) v The Chief Constable of Northumbria & Anor [2017] EWHC 455 (Admin) (08 March 2017)
Nicholas Wirz, Northumbria Police’s principal solicitor as well as the National Wellbeing & Engagement Forum’s (NWEF/NAMF) self-declared legal advisor, has suffered a humiliating legal defeat over his unlawful interpretation of comparators used by many SMPs and PMABs to calculate earning capacity.
A feature length blog on the implications of the Fisher v Northumbria judgement will follow soon. This judicial review quashes the decision of a PMAB panel that, in 2016, reduced him from a band 3 to a band 1. It is the culmination of a 11 year battle fought against Wirz and Northumbria police.
Shockingly this isn’t the first time Mr Fisher has had his injury pension unlawfully reduced. The Journal (along with The Chronicle, it is part of the North East’s most popular newspaper group) printed in 2008 a feature concerning the odious vendetta of Wirz against this former officer.
In March 1998 The Journal reported that his injury pension had been reduced before, by £1200, only to be restored on appeal. The article described how Mr Fisher was medically retired from Northumbria police after being called to the Kirkley Hall mink farm on the outskirts of Ponteland, Northumberland, to police an animal rights demonstration, when a cross-breed Rottweiler sank his teeth into his lower right arm. The animal had been fed on the remains of dead minks and Mr Fisher spent five days in hospital undergoing numerous emergency surgeries when the wound became infected.
He needed almost 40 stitches to the gash and his injuries were so severe he lost full control of the fingers in his hand. This incident was the culmination of fighting the symptoms of PTSD after being injured in an on-duty knife attack in 1992.
The Chronicle recently published that on Wednesday 8th March, Mr Justice Garnham allowed Mr Fisher’s challenge against the Chief Constable of Northumbria and the PMAB:
Bitten policeman battles off bid to slash his pension
The grounds lost by Northumbria have implications on any SMP or PMAB decision where the earning capacity was based on comparative earnings as well as where the decision made fails to give sufficient reasoning to identify, at least, the basis for the medical authority’s conclusion on uninjured comparators.
We will keep our readers up to date on the ramifications and discuss how a reconsideration, or the Pension Ombudsman, can be used to relook at unsafe historical revisions to injury awards.
The decision of the PMAB has been quashed by Justice Garnham. Points 1 & 4 (below) were won in favour of Mr Fisher and the PMAB decision has been overturned. Points 2 & 3 failed but the judge made it clear in his judgment that a reasoned decision of uninjured earning capacity has to be made by the decision maker. The corollary is that picking random jobs has to be justified and reasoned.
The PMAB, as a delegated decision maker on behalf Of the Chief Constable, made the following errors in reaching this decision:
- The PMAB erred because it failed to use the Claimant’s potential police earnings as the uninjured earnings comparator;
- Further the Chief Constable erred in back-dating the effect of the decision to 27 February 2015 and thus claiming that the Chief Constable had overpaid the Claimant when, in law, the decision only took effect at the date that it was made by the PMAB and so there no back-dating.
I have followed Northumbria’s strategic approach for a few years. I’ve never worked for them and make my observations as a retired officer, injured on duty.
So we have Crudace, Simpson, Haworth, Fisher last week (x2). They won Clemenstine and Doyle who were eventually IHR. However, this case was eventually replaced by the Sharp decision from West Yorkshire.
So what is it with Northumbria. There appears to be an entrenched and long standing internalised culture to demonise police pensioners. No doubt the decison makers at Northumbria believe that the injured pensioners are a burden who dare to claim what they are lawfully entitled to. The whole process has been corrupted to cast the pensioners as lazy frauds predicated on a sense of entitlement. Nothing could be further from the truth.
An injury on duty results in a loss of career. That’s visible, it’s tangible. What about the intangible things, loss of opportunities for advancement. The injuries and the effects on family also are ignored.
In the world of accountancy driven policing the review process is sold as a panacea to budgetary constraints. The terms legally incumbent and moral duty do not enter the equation.
The only people making money appear to be the SMP’s and Counsel instructed by Northumbria. How much money, tax payers money has been wasted on the SMP and Counsels fees. How will Northumbria put right the stress and anxiety they have caused.
PCC Vera Baird your a QC, get a grip. If I was in her shoes I’d sack Lesley Anne Knowles and Wirz, let’s not forget Broome and Cheng wouldn’t even land.
Excellent result for Stan and Mel. I await the day when the despicable Wirz and co are forced to face justice for their actions. It sickens me to think that they and their kind have been allowed for so long to carry on perpetrating such crimes in the full knowledge of the damage they cause. I hope to still be around when they are held to account.
There is now an ever growing team who are determined to make sure that all IOD Pension rules and regulations are followed to the letter rather than in the manner in which these little jumped up pratts like Wirz who are putting their own interpretation and made up amendments to absolutely destroy what was put in place to protect Police Officers at whatever level they were injured being reduced by as much as possible . Not to mention how much it will now cost the Police Forces to put right the unlawful actions of these supposed representatives of the Police legal services departments! Maybe it’s time for reports of these criminal actions to be brought against them and the Chief Constables that are supposedly responsible for them?
Disgusting treatment of this former officer. I am pleased to see the matter rectified but at what mental cost to Mr Fisher and his family, what a waste to the public purse? As an injured on duty officer suffering from complex PTSD and other injuries I will describe for the uninitiated what living with PTSD is like. You cannot sleep chronic insomnia, you suffer nightmares, night sweats, panic attacks, that leave you a trembling mess. You take pills that have little or no effect depending on how bad you are. You become reclusive, your own mind being the most restrictive prison there is. You effectively become a missing person which leaves you living with terror you cannot fight nor run from. The effects on your family lead to marital stress because you are afraid to leave your home to drive your spouse to the supermarket. There is no joy in your life, just fear 24/7 it matters not that you weigh 100kgs of muscle and bone your mind is shattered. To have put this man through this is unforgivable. When will people who run a public authority realise that you are accountable for all this, these things happen on your watch and you do nothing to stop the systematic abuse of men and women who served and protected. Malfeasance/misconduct in public office is not beyond the realms of possibility. Get your act together and stop this abuse of regulations and the mountain of case law which keeps on being added to.
A great step forward, brilliant news.
Vicarious liability. When a force employs any person to sort out their business, including sub-contractors, they become equally liable. If they do damage… both do damage.. If further suffering has resulted, the only remit is to sue for it.
Police Forces take advantage of former officers who are at their lowest point. It should be a crime!
These hideous immoral people will be exposed and it seams are starting to be. This poor guy and thousands like him have and are putting there arse in a very dangerous sling 24/7 , 365 days a year.So to be abused by these morons is truly hideous.
I know that these so called medics and there ACPOO sponsors don’t know or care about moral injury which compounds PTSI and many other cop injuries.
Maybe one day they can come and live in side my fucked up PTSI head, its not a nice place and very hard work.
They will become victims of the law all criminals do, in the words of a old mentor,we only have to get lucky one day, they have to live there criminal lives every day lucky. They are simply criminals preying on the vulnerable, payed for by ACPOO.
What a great result for Stan. I only wish some sort of action could have been taken about the ridiculous jobs they come up with anywhere in the uk. These points need looking at again but will take another JR and am not sure if they will ever be changed. However this is still a great result.
How much damage is a solicitor allowed to do when he has guilty knowledge of his actions are they not subject to a code of conduct? There must be offences committed by this odious shit hee should be pursued for them.
He’s doing it with the Chief’s consent. The odious fella wouldn’t do it otherwise.
This is plainly excellent news and a highly deserved bloody nose for Wirtz. Wirtz and Northumbria have made this case personal, and upon it, everything else rests. I do not agree with the perception that a civilian, with comparatively no experience in the jobs market can make a decision that Mr Fisher, could earn £25K in South Wales or £29K in Surrey, when he lives in Morpeth.
This quite frankly is stupid.
When the heads start rolling down the road, they will be civilian minnows, served up, by the establishment to take the hit, for the middle management idiots, I hope the DWP, suggest they all move to Surrey.
The cold clear truth is this.
You can have served 15, 20 or 25 years in the Police Force, and have excellent skills as far as a police Officer is concerned, it counts for diddly squat in the open jobs market.
It is a shame that points two and three failed, but, that day will come again.
We will never give up, and will fight everyone until the absolute death if necessary.
When I responded to a call, all those years ago, because no one else could be arsed to, I went to the incident, involving a person with a sword.
The thought that I would eventually end up being injured, and subsequently thrown out of the Force never entered my head.
Mr Fisher had exactly the same thought processes. Our brave service personnel all
have the same positive attitude.
However we all share the same domestic danger, when we should feel safe, appreciated for unselfish acts, for the benefit of the Desk jockeys and the Civvies who are now in charge of the asylum.
That common domestic danger, is being ” Shafted ” by the very people who asked us to respond to danger in the first instance, and those that if they saw, smelt, or heard anything dangerous at all, would hide under their desks like the frightened Rats they really are.
Wirtz was a bully. He has been taken down a peg or two, and that will be foremost certainly in my thinking for the future.
Northumbria Police. What can you say? Corrupt? Of course, they ALL are.
Round 1 to the good guys!
The people responsible for these decisions need to be held to account…punitive measures applied, so others will think twice in future! Its the only way to stop this!
Which law firm argued the case?
Excellent news.
Justice done? Absolutely !! Time for the injured to reflect Yes, I hope that those who bring misery to injured officers have a restless sleep at night. the fight will continue and “WE WONT BACK DOWN” in the face of intimidation and mis carriage of justice.
https://youtu.be/nvlTJrNJ5lA
Justice. Seen to be done. Now some time for self reflection, by those people who seek to injure the already injured.
Warts will just plot another way of giving injured colleagues a verucca.