Why I Wrote Without Prejudice

I've been asked a few times why I decided to bring this book out.

Very simply, people need to know what's going on – and what kind of treatment they can expect if they find themselves in a mortgage dispute.

Believe me, it's not pretty.

For many people, the first shock is discovering that legal aid is not available for disputes concerning rights and interests in or over land, which includes mortgage possession proceedings. Unless you can afford to hire a solicitor, you can therefore find yourself on your own as a lay litigant.

And there's an obvious question: how many people who are already struggling to pay their mortgage can afford to pay a solicitor to fight a prolonged possession case?

So ordinary people end up having no choice but to learn the system themselves. They prepare affidavits and legal submissions, research legislation and case law, deal with correspondence from solicitors and barristers — and eventually walk into a courtroom to argue for the right to remain in their own home.

Outclassed. Outgunned. Outflanked. And, in many cases, absolutely terrified.

On the other side are experienced legal teams acting for financial institutions with resources an ordinary homeowner could never hope to match.

I know what that feels like because I lived it.

Over the years of my own case, I encountered tactics that I found extraordinary. Facts and figures that should have been put before the court weren't. Important information was omitted. Arguments changed. Issues that appeared obvious to me were sometimes simply brushed aside.

And then there was the attitude towards the lay litigant.

Not every judge behaved this way – and I make that distinction deliberately – but on occasions I encountered an open contempt for lay litigants that was impossible to miss. You're already standing there without legal representation, exhausted both mentally and physically, facing experienced lawyers in unfamiliar surroundings, fighting over your home. And the very person who makes the decision that could change your whole existence is sneering at you from a height and refusing to hear you. The imbalance could hardly be greater.

The legal phrase is equality of arms. My experience was that there wasn't much equality about it.

And none of this is happening in secret.

The banks know how this system operates. The law firms know. The courts know.

The people who often don't know are the people entering it for the first time.

That's one of the reasons I wrote Without Prejudice.

You may never find yourself fighting tooth and nail to keep the roof over your head. I sincerely hope you don't. But nearly two decades after the financial crash, there are still hundreds, if not thousands of us living with its consequences and still dealing with mortgage arrears and possession proceedings.

And there is another part of this story that receives far too little attention: what does years of this do to a human being?

The fear of losing your home doesn't disappear when you walk out of the courtroom. You bring it home with you. It follows you to bed. It is there when you wake up. Court dates, letters, affidavits, threats of possession, financial uncertainty – month after month, year after year.

Unless you've lived through it, I don't think you can fully understand the prolonged mental and physical toll it can take.

I’ve lived with it for fifteen years. And It’s still going on.

That's why this isn't a book written from the sidelines. It isn't an academic examination of the Irish legal system and it isn't a lawyer explaining how the system is supposed to work.

It's my account of what happened when I actually had to go through it.

People need to know what goes on — those directly affected and those who aren't.

It's high time this information got out there.

And yes, I chose the cover artwork for a reason.