Sabine: More on that pesky fine

Sabine has decided to enlighten us all further on the fallout from the gigantic balls-up she and Belinda made of Melissa Baird’s case a couple of years ago. On her MelissaLaird.com blog, she has this to say:

Melissa is a spiritual warrior par excellence. Remember: the passport that we secured for her so that she could turn round and fly to Ireland when she was deported to Washington two years ago, was taken away from her.

She managed to survive in the airport for two months, as she was met ‘without reception’. She is now making a living by driving a truck and has found herself a cabin to live in by the woods. It is very similar to the abode that she had created for her and her son in Spain, where she was located by Barnet Council, after she had taken her son to a hospital there.

As we recollect, Melissa and her son were living in filthy conditions, without running water or electricity, in a caravan attached to a car, in the Spanish countryside. One of the social workers sent to retrieve her young son at that time actually gagged while recounting the scene they encountered.

Melissa is still waiting for the oral hearing that had been scheduled for December 2013. We tried to prevent her deportation with the aid of a Judicial Review to the Administrative Court.

And that worked like a bloody charm, didn’t it?

As commenter Nemo Momenti noted in our first post on this topic,

Their two greatest mistakes here would appear to be firstly that they strayed outside the Family Court, where costs are almost never ordered, into the Administrative Court, which is renowned for its heavy burden of costs on the losing party. Secondly they didn’t go to the hearing; the very best way to be absolutely certain that not only will you lose, but that it will go as far against you as it possibly can.

In her usual perpetually aggrieved tone, Sabine says:

This December we were supposed to appear in Court because we are to pay for the costs of the private barrister that the Treasury Solicitor’s Office (TSO) hired to defend their views.

First a judge questioned the ‘truth’ of us McKenzie Friends actually representing Melissa. Now another judge wants to penalise us for that.

Here’s an important memo to Sabine: McKenzie friends are not permitted to ‘represent’ their clients in court.

They are to act as assistants only. Perhaps if Sabine and Belinda understood this vital distinction, they might fare slightly better, and not get dinged for costs that they run up because they don’t know what they’re doing.

In the vastness of their ignorance and bungling, Sabine and Belinda’s ‘Association of McKenzie Friends’ undoubtedly causes far more harm than good.

As commenter Sarah Phillimore (who knows a thing or three about family court, being an actual family lawyer and all) says, “Not only are they leading desperate parents down the path of never seeing their children again but they are also wasting public money in pursuit of their fantasy crusades”.

To which we can only say, “Amen”.