Quantum of damages

R (Bernard) v Enfield LBC ([2002] EWHC 2282)

The defendant was found to be in breach of article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in failing to provide suitable accommodation for the claimants, one of whom was disabled, over a period of 20 months. The defendant had not acknowledged that it was in error, had given no explanation and no apology, and gave no indication that its procedures had been improved so that the same kind of mistake was less likely to occur in the future. In the absence of a comparable tort, the judge used the Local Government Ombudsman’s awards as a comparison and awarded £10,000 after taking into account that the claimants’ problems had been compounded by the council’s conduct.