Back in July 2019, a UK police force raided my home and seized my electronics, including two phones, a laptop, and a home server that cost around £5.5k. As an IT nerd, the server was my pride and joy. After multiple interviews, the police found nothing incriminating on my devices, but when I went to pick them up in May 2020, they informed me that my server had been dropped down four flights of stairs and was destroyed beyond repair. To add insult to injury, the server contained 0.48 BTC on a secure partition.
The police apologized and gave me a claim form to fill out to compensate me for the loss of the server and its contents. I sent in the form in June 2020, but nothing happened, and I got distracted by other things. In November 2020, I contacted the Professional Standards department, and they helped me log a new claim and get a repair quote and cost for the BTC. However, I didn't hear anything back from them after I submitted the documents.
In March 2021, I called them again, but the person who had helped me before had swapped departments, and the team was working from home. I filed a complaint about the delay, but no action was taken. After March 2022, I forgot about the claim, but I remembered it again in February 2023 and contacted a lawyer who couldn't take on the case because they only handled criminal defense, not civil cases.
I called 170 different law firms, but only one offered to help me. They asked me to write a demand letter giving the police seven days to settle, or they would take them to the high court. Six days later, after hearing nothing, I called the police commissioner's office. They were shocked and angry to discover that the legal services department hadn't updated my file or checked up on it. They got in touch with me to acknowledge my email and said it would take three months to investigate as it's a new claim.
I corrected them that it wasn't a new claim and that they had three years to investigate. I wanted to avoid high court action, but they were sticking by their three-month position and refusing to reply to me. It's £20k we're talking about, not chump change, and I'm really pissed off. I don't know how to proceed, either with a very expensive lawyer that I can't afford or by waiting and hoping they actually reply. So WIBTA of I took them to court now or should I give them the time they want? Any help would be appreciated.