Director at Irvings Law, Mr Ian Kyle, has successfully represented a client (Ms Laura Linauskaite) against Norfolk Constabulary in a claim for false imprisonment and associated assault whereby they arrested and detained her in connection with an arrest warrant which was actually meant for a different person.
Background
On 18th June 2020, Ms Linauskaite was at home with her nine year old son watching movies when two Police Officers from Norfolk Constabulary knocked on her door. Once she opened the door, the said officers immediately informed her she was under arrest for failing to attend Court in Bristol way back in 2003. Ms Linauskaite told the said officers that they must be mistaken as she was not in the country in 2003. In fact, she did not arrive in England until 2004 and therefore it would was impossible for her to have been due in Court on the date they say she was. Ms Linauskaite further protested that she has never visited Bristol in her entire life and has never before been in trouble with the Police nor summonsed to Court in relation to any criminal offence.
Unfortunately, the said officers refused to conduct any checks to confirm whether this was true and proceeded to arrest Ms Linauskaite anyway and also in front of her young son who was terrified of his mother being taken away by the Police. The incident was further elongated by the fact that there was no one else present at the address to care for her son whilst she was taken away. Therefore, Ms Linauskaite was forced to call her mother to come and collect him whilst she went to the Police Station. In an attempt to minimise the distress, Ms Linauskaite asked the officers how long she would be detained in custody for, but the officers said they couldn’t answer her question and gave her with no further information whatsoever; thus leaving her in the dark.
Ms Linauskaite was then placed into a Police vehicle and taken to the Police Station. When she arrived there, Ms Linauskaite was processed by having her fingerprints taken as well as her being searched upon her person and her bag too. For a woman of good character, this was understandably humiliating. Ms Linauskaite again explained to the custody officers that they had arrested the wrong person and provided the officers with proof of her identification which still they simply refused to listen until after three long hours of being detained, the finally realised their mistake and they indeed had arrested the wrong person.
Representation
After speaking with Ms Linauskaite on the phone, Mr Kyle quickly acknowledged that the Police’s conduct in this scenario was totally unacceptable and recognised that she had an extremely good claim for false imprisonment and associated assault. On this basis, he offered to act for Ms Linauskaite on a ‘no win no fee basis’ which Ms Linauskaite accepted before then he swiftly requested and obtained all information Norfolk Constabulary held in respect of Ms Linauskaite’s arrest and conducted a full evaluation of the evidence.
After reviewing the documentation, Mr Kyle did not change his view on the prospects of Ms Linauskaite’s claim and as such, a Letter of Claim for compensation was submitted to the Police’s legal team for consideration.
Resolution
Norfolk Constabulary’s legal team responded to her claim by apologising and admitting liability for her presented claims. After a series of without prejudice communications with the Police, Ms Linauskaite authorised Mr Kyle to settle her case in the sum of £3,000.00 plus her legal costs.
