Liverpool firm stands by its man

A LIVERPOOL firm is standing by a paralegal who was filmed playing in the same football team as a personal injury client who had just won damages after claiming he had been seriously injured tripping on a pavement.

Howard Jackson & Co, which sponsors the team, said it believed its welfare adviser Steve Barton's assertion that the first time he had played with Peter Hill was when Liverpool Council filmed them together.

When Judge Richard Hamilton saw the video he ordered Hill to repay the £11,000 in damages he had received in the original trial, when Barton had helped prepare his case.

At the retrial, the judge rejected Hill's claim that he had turned up to watch the game and had been persuaded to play.

He described Hill as "every inch a keen, regular footballer".

The judge also questioned the evidence given by Barton, who said he had never played with Hill before. But he went out of his way to exonerate the firm from blame.

After the trial, Howard Jackson, senior partner at Howard Jackson & Co, said: "I've every confidence in him [Barton]."



See Local Government, page 6.