We have been overwhelmed with face coverings cases because so few organisations are tackling this issue, and because it is such a big one.

We are currently unable to take on any new cases but encourage you to consider the following information if you are running out of time to issue your claim, remembering there is a six month time limit.

The following guidance is for peope who have already contacted a service provider about disability discrimination, perhaps using a face coverings discrimination letter and who have either had a negative response or no response.

Your options are:.

1.  To seek a solicitor by contacting the Law Society: https://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk

2.  To use an alternative route if there is one such as an Ombudsman or the NHS complaints procedure.

3.  To run your own county court claim.  Here is a template court form.  If you are on a low income you can get help with court fees by following this link: https://www.gov.uk/get-help-with-court-fees.  You can then put the reference number in the top right hand corner of the form. 

To identify the correct legal name of the Defendant use the Companies House website to get the correct name and address for the business that discriminated against you.  https://www.gov.uk/get-information-about-a-company.  You can then make sure you have the correct name and address on your claim form.

Once your claim is issued you usually have 4 months to send it to the Defendant if you use this letter when sending your claim to the court.

You should include 3 copies - two to be sealed and returned to you (one to keep and one to send to the Defendant) and one that the court will keep.  But if you have a disability that makes this unrealistic you could use the court email making it clear you are doing that as a disabled litigant in person who cannot meet the standard requirements - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

This approach gives you further time to negotiate.  The onus is then on you to send the claim form to the Defendant.

Information on the county court claim process can be found here: https://www.kingqueen.org.uk/dart.  And here: https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money.  

To proceed you would then need

a. To be able to write your particulars of claim to follow the claim form.  This is a summary of your case.  Here is a template .   We are sorry this is in PDF - our website does not take other formats but you can convert it to Word and then work with it - various online converters are available.  Or try copying and pasting the text.
 
b. Medical evidence.  Although you don't need medical evidence to exercise a face coverings exemption you will for your court claim.  The evidence must lead a reasonable person to believe you are disabled under the Equality Act 2010 (namely that you have a condition that has a substantial impact on your ability to carry out normal day to day activities for more than a year).  It must also lead a reasonable person to believe you cannot safely wear a face covering.  You do not need to send medical evidence with your claim but you must have it ready in case your claim is defended.

The risks of running your court claim yourself

• The Defendant might intimidate you with threats of costs proceedings against you.  If your case was not allocated to the small claims track, and you lost, and you have income and/or capital and/or assets, you could be liable to pay the other side's legal costs if a court thought it was just for you to do so.  Basically the less you have the less risk there is.  So if you are on means tested benefits and have no savings or assets of any significance there is little risk.  This is because even if the Defendant got an order for costs you could not afford to pay it anyway and it would be an unsecured debt.  If you have income and/or assets the risk is much greater.
  
• Proceedings can get stressful.  Defendants may deploy ruthless lawyers to try and face you down and use intimidatory tactics to do so.  Do no expect any humanity, reasonableness or compassion of any kind.  Lawyers will defend cases using every means at their disposal even when they know you are right and their client is wrong.  Be prepared to be made to feel that you are on trial, but remember you are not, the Defendant is.  Parliament has provided face coverings exemptions, it is considered unlikely a court would find in favour of a service provider trying to argue those exemptions don't apply to it.
• The courts are not necessarily helpful to litigants in person, but the senior judges say they should be: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Equal-Treatment-Bench-Book-February-2021-1.pdf.  So officially you are welcome in the courts service as a disabled litigant in person and can expect reasonable accommodations as you seek justice.
  
• If you are not court fees exempt you will have to pay court fees and if you lose you cannot recover them.  If you win, however, the Defendant would probably have to pay them.  Information about court fees can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/court-fees .  The template claim would attract a fee of £455, if you are not fees exempt, but if you claim less the fee is less.
  

The Advantages of running your own case

•  You do not have to pay anyone a share of any winnings - you get them all.
•  You have control.
•  The court has to make reasonable accommodations for you.
•  The Defendant is likely to have to do the bulk of any paperwork involved to provide the case bundle for the court.
•  The Equality Act is largely only enforced by people bringing cases.  There are so many potential discrimination cases that lawyers and advice agencies will only be able to cover a fraction of the total demand.  If you can do it yourself you are ready to deal with any other discrimination you may face.
  
• There is support available for litigants in person from Support Through Court: https://www.supportthroughcourt.org
  

Please remember there is usually a six month time limit from the incident date to get your case to court.

We are sorry we cannot do more.  We are one of a tiny number of organisations that have done anything about the scandal of disability discrimination arising from the face coverings regime.  Disability and advice charities with substantial funding bases have been largely silent.  We were hoping the work could be spread out more, but so much of it has come to us and we are too small to do it all.

We are seeking additional capacity as we build the business to fight the tidal wave of disability discrimination engulfing society.  Unfortunately, this will take time hence our asking you to use the above information.

 

Unfortunately we are having to dramatically reduce the number of face coverings cases we take on.  This is because:

 

• We are a small company having only 5 staff.
• The face coverings work is swamping other areas.
• Service providers almost invariably seek to defend the indefensible and drag matters out as long as possible.
• Staff are working ludicrous hours trying to deal with it and there is a risk to them unless we reduce demand.
• Some customers form expectations we cannot meet.

 

So reluctantly we have had to bring in the following criteria for us to be able to take on a face coverings case:

 

• The case must involve denial of access to essentials such as health-care, education or employment because you are disabled and cannot safely wear a face covering.
• The guilty party must have confirmed its position in writing.

 

In most cases if a written complaint is made the organisation will change its position.  If, when you've made a complaint, the organisation insists it can bar you even though you have made clear you are exempt from wearing a face covering then let us know and we'll do everything we can.

If you still wish to pursue a court claim then here is a template face coverings discrimination letter.

Taking things further can be done using the Disability Attitude Readjustment Tool in England and Wales.

Alternatively you can use the Equality and Human Rights Commission advice service.

Or there is the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.

Please always remember there is usually a six month time limit for a disability discrimination claim, although for employment cases it is usually 3 months. 

Unfortunately the face coverings crisis increases with easing of restrictions where people are officially allowed to do more, but where ignorant service providers wrongly believe that people are only allowed to take advantage of services reopening if they are able to wear a face covering. 

All UK devolved governments have approved exemptions so that disabled people unable to wear face coverings are not excluded from society.  Services cannot reasonably make up their own rules that go beyond the face coverings regimes envisaged by UK legislatures, namely that most people have to wear face coverings in relevant places, but not those who are unable to wear one. 

The dangerous mob rule that has sprung up in pockets around the UK, where people favour a 100% face coverings regime with no legal basis and take it upon themselves to enforce it, is a disburbing development in society with a very sinister dimension.   No security guards, members of the public, shop staff etc have any right to try to enforce face coverings.  Enforcement agents are specified in the relevant regulations and typically comprise police officers, police community support officers and local authority officers only. 

Face coverings exemptions cover virtually all indoor service environments.  Individual business owners cannot legitimately declare their premises a private space where the law of the land does not apply.  There is also no legal basis for people seeking to enforce mask wearing outdoors.

Due to the further increase in cases this situation has caused, we regret we can only take on the most urgent and severe cases.  These are typically situations involving harassment and exclusion from essential services of disabled people clearly unable to wear a face covering.  Also please bear in mind that the majority of service providers DO respect face coverings exemptions most of the time.

We do, however, have our services face coverings discrimination letter.  Please note there is usually a maximum of 6 months to get your case to court from the date of the discriminatory incident.

Information about taking matters further can be found here .

Please note service providers are unlikely to cave in without a fight - there is no magic letter or notice that will make everyone see sense.  If you go to court there is always a risk factor.  The risk is less the poorer you are.

Some service providers are very aggressive about the issue of masks - it brings out the worse in people.  The only way to bring cases against them is in the courts.  There is no enforcement body that will enforce your rights unless a criminal offence is committed.  This can be the case in the more extreme incidents but usually it's a breach of civil rights, which is only enforceable by the victim bringing their own proceedings. 

Unless enough of us make a stand, the situation may well get worse and lead to further erosion of basic civil rights. 

 

We are shocked to report the majority of service providers who have discriminated against, and harassed, disabled people unable to wear face coverings are not owning up and putting things right.  Instead, most are defending the indefensible.  Some even going so far as to assert they are entitled to refuse personal service to people unable to wear face coverings for medical reasons.

Disturbingly, many service providers are also turning events around on disabled people, saying their staff "feel threatened" when people point out government guidance regarding face coverings exemptions.  A situation only occurring because of, for example, wrongful insistence on exemption evidence and even outright refusal of entry. 

Most shocking of all are the number of NHS cases where people are refused treatment for being unable to wear a face covering.  "No mask no treatment" policies are in force at a small minority of hospitals and GPs with wide variation across the UK.  Almost unbelievably, some are defending their position even though it destroys the purpose of the NHS - to provide free health-care based on need.

We again apologise for the delay in responding to enquiries.  We are inundated like never before because disability discrimination and harassment have become so common.  We are a small not for profit company and are doing our best to get back to everyone remembering we have a six month time limit to work with for disability discrimination claims.  We also have our usual social security work (mainly PIP) to deal with as well.

 

Following our first face coverings success, where a major service provider agreed to pay the Claimant £7,000 for refusing her access for being unable to wear a face covering, a raft of pre-action correspondence has transpired.

Our first priority is to ensure that disabled people unable to wear face coverings can use services safely and without being harassed.  Apart from US based companies who don't understand UK equality law, it has not generally been difficult to get service providers to agree that disabled people exempt from wearing a face covering are entitled to go about their business on the same basis as everyone else, but on just one proviso, the words "I'm exempt" must be clearly stated if challenged.  This is unsatisfactory for some, but the Guidance does allow service providers to check if someone wearing a mask is exempt or simply forgotten to wear a face covering.  But that is as far as any service provider can legitimately go. 

We have therefore asked Her Majesty's Government (HMG) to improve awareness of the face coverings exemptions regime and our Director has received this encouraging reply from the Minister. 

Again HMG states, "...we make it clear that some people may have a ‘reasonable excuse’ for not wearing face coverings, and that people do not need to prove they are exempt and should not be challenged about this.  We are also clear that people should remove their face coverings to aid communication where asked, and that those accompanying or assisting people for whom a face covering will inhibit communication are not required to wear face coverings".

Although we're making good progress with increasing understanding, compensation is taking longer.  In fact, people using our free template letter have achieved more than our own letters to service providers!  Several people using our template have already had offers of compensation whilst our own efforts have so far resulted in all services seeking lengthy time extensions to investigate.  Please note there is usually a six month time limit to get your case to court. 

It was kind of several people to offer donations and, although we never expect this, we have added a donations button to our site for those who want to and are able to.  The button also responds to the requests we have had from some customers to pay their fees using PayPal, although we do not encourage this due to charges.

We hope in some small way we have made getting out and about easier and less stressful.  Remember the exemptions system is there so that those unable to wear face coverings can still use services.  Those bizarrely behaving people who believe there should be no exemptions are effectively saying those unable to wear face coverings, including children, should be banned from all services.  Fortunately that is not the position of the Government and those who pursue such a ridiculous agenda are likely to continue to cause compensation claims.  The number of such people in work is likely to decrease as they will become increasingly expensive for employers.

 

Hearing of so many devastating incidents of extreme disability discrimination triggered by various service providers seeking to enforce masks on those unable to wear them has been shocking.  Now we are working together to nail the offenders and stop this happening.

Many people have already obtained apologies and assurances of changes from service providers - a great achievement.  This is the piority - to ensure we can all go out free from discrimination and harassment.

If you want to give yourself the best possible chance of winning your case it is best to have the following in place... 

- Medical evidence showing you have condition that has a long term and substantial impact on your life.  Long term means at least a year and substantial means more than minor or trivial. 

- Confirmation that wearing a face covering would cause you severe distress.  The gold standard is a medical professional confirming this, but we appreciate this is not always possible and you will know if a face covering causes you severe distress.  Although this is new territory for everyone, logically if you describe severe distress and that is consistent with your condition, that should be accepted by service providers and / or the courts. 

- Dates, times and locations of incidents with a description of what happened.

Please note none of this is needed to be exempt from wearing a face covering.  It's just that such evidence is needed when pursuing remedy for discrimination. 

If you have the above in place when we get to your case, if you still need us, we will be able to get on with it efficiently.

There is usually a six month time limiit for discrimination cases.

Apologies to those who have struggled to find our face coverings discrimination template letter.