An ongoing legal battle between the English and the Spanish courts has landed in the lap of local Hastings and Rye MP Michael Foster. Appeals by ex-pat, Edward Kirwan to Hastings County Court have fallen on deaf ears. Likewise The Hastings Observer has failed to observe the proceedings.
The refusal to provide legal assistance to an ex-patriots has not gone unnoticed by The Independent Newspaper ("Crackdown on legal aid will hit expats" Joe Churcher, 3 Feb 2010). However that report is for future events. Unbeknown to that reporter were the workings of court office workers in the Family section of Hastings County Court.
It appears it has become the norm to declare that anyone seeking financial assistance (a fee exemption) needs to have supporting proof from a bank statement in pounds. No law or statute was quoted to Mr. Kirwan when he applied for a fee exemption for example.
Former Hastings resident , Edward Kirwan, stated that he would not give up his struggle for justice in this case. He is publishing his case in the hope that not only his but many other voices would be heard..
Meanwhile ...Hastings Observer...observes,,,
