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DART – the Disability Attitude Re-adjustment Tool

I’ve written a Guide for Disabled People to Sue Service Providers for Disability Discrimination, as Unrepresented Litigants in Person in England. (Otherwise known as DART – the Disability Attitude Readjustment Tool.) Suing isn’t as difficult or risky as it might sound. Given that only the person discriminated against can take action, and legal aid is effectively non-existent, this is now pretty much the only way to enforce one’s legal rights.

This accompanying post provides extra resources to go with the guide. NB: many of the examples have been anonymised due to non-disclosure agreements. Don’t be over-awed – suing is actually a simple process and you will probably never need most of the following. (There’s a lot here because I want to give many examples and cover many circumstances, much of which you won’t use.)

The guide (current version 1.6, November 2015)

Download DART – the Disability Attitude Re-adjustment Tool – .doc Format

Download DART – the Disability Attitude Re-adjustment Tool – .pdf Format

View DART – the Disability Attitude Re-adjustment Tool as a webpage

Download DART – the Disability Attitude Re-adjustment Tool – Audiobook .mp3 format (in a .zip file)

Print API

I don’t get any money from the above third party printing service. They do seem to do a good job though.
Creative Commons Licence DART – the Disability Attitude Re-adjustment Tool by Doug Paulley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Links:

  1. iCASTS. Graham Kirwan-Dudley’s excellent resources to support blind, partially sighted and print disabled people to challenge service providers’ failure to meet people’s accessible communications needs, and to enforce their rights under the Equality Act. Incorporates some of “DART”.
  2. The Stammering Law website. Gives excellent and comprehensive information about disability discrimination and the Equality Act. (Goes well beyond “just” stammering.) Written by an ex-lawyer. I thoroughly recommend this site. It goes into detail on some of the issues I gloss over or don’t even mention in my guide, due to my wish to keep the guide as un-daunting and as usable as possible, so if you aren’t clear on something, check this website.
  3. Towards Access. Excellent website on common access problems, reasonable adjustments, the disability discrimination law and common misconceptions about it.
  4. Statutory Equality Act Code of Practice on Services, Public Functions and Associations – useful guidance and examples about what service providers have to do under the Act.
  5. Help with Fees application (online)
  6. HM Court Service FormFinder – for anything not listed below (all PDF):
    1. Claim Form (N1),
    2. Fee Exemption (EX160),
    3. Current Court Fees (EX50).
    4. Directions questionnaire – Small Claims Track (N180).
    5. Directions questionnaire – Fast Track and Multi Track (N181)
    6. Notice of Discontinuance (N279)
    7. Application Notice (N244) and assocated Guidance
    8. Notice of Offer to Settle (N242A)
  7. Court finder – gives address, accessibility, other contact details for the court service. You want a County Court.
  8. A Guide to Bringing and Defending a Small Claim (PDF) – Civil Justice Council. Gives more detail on the process, including costs.
  9. The Bar Council’s Guide to Representing yourself in Court
  10. Circuit Judges’ Handbook for Litigants in Person (PDF) – NB: useful reference but more in-depth than you’ll hopefully need.
  11. The Civil Procedure Rules and Directions instructions for court procedures.
    1. Practice Direction – Pre-action Conduct – what you should do before starting your case
    2. Practice Direction 18 – Requesting Further Information
    3. Practice Direction 27 Appendix B – Standard Directions  – if you’re asked for them and choose not to use my template below
    4. Practice Direction 36A – Offers to Settle
  12. The Citizen’s Advice Bureau’s useful Guide to the Small Claims Track
  13. The Small Claims Mediation Service
  14. Other Mediators
  15. The Equality Act 2010. You generally don’t need to read this!
  16. Requesting your own Personal Information – guide by the Information Commissioner on Subject Access Requests.
  17. Companies House – to look up the head office of the defendant, assuming it’s a company.
  18. Law Centres – best way of getting affordable representation.
  19. An incomplete list of my cases and how they finished up… (Google sheets)
  20. The House of Lords Select Committee on the Equality Act 2010 and Disability Investigating the provisions and implementation of the Equality Act 2010 about how it serves disabled people.
  21. Crippen / Dave Lupton Cartoons – who created the excellent cartoons I have borrowed for the guide.

Downloadable Documents:

  1. The Disability Rights Commission‘s “How to Sue” booklet (PDF). This is out of date, but very useful. Replace “Disability Discrimination Act / DDA 1995” with “Equality Act 2010“, and remember that the Small Claims Track now goes up to £10,000 instead of £5,000, that there’s now no allocation fee but there is a hearing fee, even in small claims cases, and it’s pretty spot on.
  2. Example Letters before Action: (doc)
    1. Tesco (disabled toilet locked out of use) (includes Subject Access Request)
    2. Pub (locked wheelchair accessible door) 
    3. Counsellor (canceled session when realised no wheelchair access to their premises)
    4. Bus firm (refused to operate ramp)
    5. Train (broken disabled toilet) (includes subject access request)
    6. Court service (general failures)
    7. Pub (perennially broken disabled toilet)
    8. Court (thought chairlift was wheelchair access)
    9. Underground train (failure to keep access info up to date)
    10. Snooker club (broken lift)
  3. Example completed Claim Forms (N1) (PDFs)
    1. Counselling company:
      1. Before printing, signing and scribbling
      2. Final version
    2. Tesco Claim Form
  4. Example Particulars of Claim (.doc)
    1. Counselling Service Particulars of Claim
    2. Pub Particulars of Claim
    3. Court Service Particulars of Claim
    4. Housing Association Particulars
    5. Underground Train Particulars of Claim
    6. Service Station Particulars of Claim
    7. Firstbus Particulars of Claim
  5. Example Exemption Claim for issuing (EX160A)
  6. Example Allocation and Directions Questionnaires:
    1. Directions Questionnaire N180
    2. Example Directions Questionnaire N181
  7. Draft Directions Template – download and customise to your needs
  8. Draft Witness Statement templates:
    1. Your witness statement (claimant) template
    2. Other Witness Statements template
  9. Example Tomlin orders (open agreements) (PDFs):
    1. Theatre (charged for carer’s ticket)
  10. Example Notice of Discontinuance (N279) (PDFs):
    1. Example N279 Notice of Discontinuance (before scribbling)
    2. Finalised N279 Notice of Discontinuance
  11. Example Application to Strike Out Defence (N244) (PDFs):
    1. Application to Strike Out Defence (N244) before scribbling
    2. Signed Application to Strike Out Defence
  12. Example Part 18 Request and Refusal (.doc):
    1. Example Part 18 Request
    2. Example Part 18 Refusal
  13. Example Part 36 Offers to Settle:
    1. Example Part 36 Offer by Email (.doc)
    2. Example Part 36 Offer by Form N242A (PDF)
  14. Example Judgment (may all yours be like this!) (PDF)
    1. Judgment for the Claimant

With thanks to the many people who enabled this to happen – including proof readers Max, Mike, Mum and Dad

18 Replies to “DART – the Disability Attitude Re-adjustment Tool”

  9. I note the N1 form but equally valid may be filling N208 form and sending it directly to your local court?

    Reply

    • A court has taken me down this route before but I dont think it’s correct, and indeed the court eventually agreed that it made an error and equality act claims are Part 7 claims. Part 7 claims can also be sent direct to the local court. (in fact I always do.) Also if I remember correctly, some aspects of procedure are more prescriptive with Part 8 claims, e.g. one can’t win by default if the defendant fails to submit a defence, it has to go to a judge or whatever. I am not a lawyer, though.

      Reply

      • Dear Doug, Thank you very much. Yes, it was via phone I was advised I could complete a N208 form (Part 8) so I could submit a claim direct to my local court. I didn’t wish to do ‘Money Claims’ since it is really a disability discrimination claim I wished to file (and in part due to time limits). Thank you so much for the correct information.

        Reply

  10. Thank you for these useful contacts Doug, In the one and only face to face meeting I have managed to get with the Town Clerk and a Councillor I did correct him about the DDA (up until recently I worked in a FE College so was up to date on the equality act changes in respect of access for our students and employees) I have been getting some help from Equal Lives be have drawn a blank as to where to take it further. I will be seeking advice and will keep you posted with regards to my progress! Thanks again

    Reply

  11. I am currently in furious negotiations with my local town council who have put in a new play area with no wheelchair access despite me contacting them at the planning stages and getting reassurances from them. I even have emails saying use a different play ground with a path, asking me to get quotes on a suitable cheap and aesthetically pleasing option and most recently saying they cannot do anything now as the ground is too wet and boggy to consider anything – Erm this was kind of my point about the grass not being accessible to wheelchair users or electric scooter/chair users! They tell me they have met their DDA requirements is this true? I now wonder…..

    Reply

    • Well, if they say DDA then they most definitely are incorrect as the DDA hasn’t existed for 6 years now! The Equality Act replaced it in 2010.

      I think they are unlikely to have met their obligations under the Equality Act, because that places a duty on them to anticipate difficulties disabled people would encounter when attempting to access their services (in this case, their play area) and make reasonable adjustments to their physical features to minimise those difficulties.

      As a public authority, they also have extra duties under the “Public Sector Equality Duty” to promote disability equality in all that they do.

      I’d suggest taking legal advice. Louise Whitfield of Deighton Price Glynn http://currentsite.deightonpierceglynn.co.uk/people/people_11.htm is the UK expert solicitor in the Public Sector Equality Duty. Unity Law http://www.unity-law.co.uk/ are the UK experts in disability discrimination cases in general.

      Good luck

      Doug

      Reply

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