In the news

The cyclist ordered to pay up to £100k to the pedestrian who walked in front of him, has already go most of his £21k goal on gofundme (set up by a friend of his).

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-cover-rob-hazeldean039s-legal-fees#

Comments:

The court's decision is a travesty. I also believe that Gemma should donate her award to a charity for the blind.

Excellent.

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/environment/tory-mp-apologises-for-letting-greenpeace-protester-live-20190621186813

A round of applause, please, for the electorate of Brecon & Radnorshire.

You are the lyrical gangster AICMFP

“I didn’t grab her by the throat, I grabbed her by the neck”

Weak defence, bro.

A neighbour told the Guardian they heard a woman screaming followed by
“slamming and banging”. At one point Symonds could be heard telling
Johnson to “get off me” and “get out of my flat”.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/21/police-called-to-loud-altercation-at-boris-johnsons-home

'We never ever argue, we never calculate the currency we've spent. I love you, you pay my rent.'

'I'm your puppet. I love it.'

The most worrying aspect of that is that the Met denied they'd been called initially, then had to backtrack when the journalist detailed the evidence they had.

Boris top story on 5-live.

Hunt walks into the Prime Minister job?

Nah. Boris is Teflon.

He’s going to win by miles still.

I think the neighbours are about to have their lives turned inside out.

Scary, huh?

Only if wife-beating is disapproved of by the average Conservative party member - who is probably counting on Johnson to legalise the practice.

Terrifying

There are a lot of powerful interests who want an even worse leadership vacuum than Theresa May ...

He really is going full Trump, isn't he? Amazing...

Oh dear, really? That is worrying.

Smashing it so far. For once public opinion is with the cyclist. Seeing articles about fines for 'phone zombies' as the press has christened them. Curious so I googled her name and all social media has been deleted. Guessing she didn't realise her and her lawyers' greed would attract so much public anger.

I think it's important to acknowledge exactly what has happened here.

The cyclist represented himself at the beginning of the trial and chose to not put in a counterclaim against the pedestrian who was awarded £3kish for an 8mm scar on her lip. The rest of the £100k is court costs, which he probably wouldnt be liable for if he had lawyered up from the start and entered a counterclaim.

Moral of the story is, always lawyer up. Because if you try to be a nice guy and do the right thing in court, you make an easy target of yourself.

Yep. And £40 a year British Cycling membership gives you legal support from a decent firm of solicitors with a specialist cycling department so it's a total no brainer.

Will save anyone who needs to use it a fortune.

Oh I do not dispute that, it was principled but stupid. However the fact remains she made the decision to make a claim against him for something that was to most observers entirely her fault. While the judge may have ruled him equally to blame public opinion it seems does not. She and her lawyers look very greedy and the court system exploitative and unfair.

I got the free £25 bronze membership as a HSBC customer and thought I was covered, turns out I'm not, it only gives you discounted bike insurance.

Thanks for the clarification!

This reminds me of an incident a long way back where a cyclist was extremely incapacitated through alcohol, crashed their bike and propelled themselves into the opposite lane where they were tragically run over and killed by a car. The car driver was jailed for causing death by dangerous driving because the court deemed that the driver should have been driving at a slower speed due to the risk that a pedestrian (or drunk cyclist) could appear in their path.

£33.50 if you pay by direct debit. The website knocks 10% off the £37 Commuter package, I called to check.