A time for caution...
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If you're one of the hundreds refusing to pay a fine for carrying stowaways, you could be forgiven for feeling alarmed about the Home Office's application for a Group Litigation Order (GLO) to let it deal with lots of cases in one go. This might save on court time, but it's an unusual moveGLOs are normally used by multiple claimants against a single defendant, not vice versa.
Of course we won't know for several weeks if the application is successful, but if it is the huge backlog of cases could be dealt with far more quicldy than previously believed. Good news if appeals are upheld; but this is by no means guaranteed.
The Home Office argues that every defendant will have an opportunity to present an individual defence. But the mechanics of the process to one side, what has been particularly worrying about the whole stowaway penalty system from the first is the reversal of normal legal policy, with hauliers apparently assumed to be guilty until proven innocent. Since simply filling out a few forms to say you've made some checks proves little either way, proving innocence has been difficult.
If the application for a GLO is successful we can only hope that the court upholds the right of British citizens to be regarded as innocent until proven guilty, and not the other way around. Because proving guilt will be just as tricky for the Home Office as proving innocence has been up to now for the hauliers.
• For cowboy hauliers impounding is just round the corner. It s been a long time coming, but from July lawabiding operators will finally be getting the solid support they need. The honest majority can only benefit from the removal of cowboy competition. And who knows: it might even help rates.