Northern Ireland Defamation Cases, numbers decline – Olivia O’Kane

The recent changes in the media landscape have no doubt had an impact for libel lawyers in Northern Ireland.  As advertising cuts continue to be made and the Leveson culture has exerted pressure on journalistic practice, the media are no doubt trying to resolve disputes in advance of legal proceedings being issued.  Legal Aid is not available to libel claimants and conditional fee agreements and after the event insurance is not available in Northern Ireland, which also has an effect on the volume of this type of legal work.

News: Privacy Injunction Statistics, January to June 2012 – identifying the cases [Updated]

On 27 September 2012 the Ministry of Justice Published its second statistical report on privacy injunctions, covering the 6 month period January to June 2012. It is noted that, during this period, there were 9 new applications for interim privacy injunctions and 9 applications to continue existing injunctions.  There were 4 cases in which the High Court considered whether or not to issue permanent privacy injunctions and no privacy injunction appeals. Two of the cases involved the media although there appears to have been only one classic “media privacy injunction” application (which was unsuccessful on the return date).

A dearth of data about defamation cases in England and Wales – Judith Townend

On Tuesday 18 September, the Law Society held a public debate on the Defamation Bill, asking the panel – including two QCs, a libel reform campaigner and an in-house newspaper lawyer – what they thought of its measures. Much was said about what was missing in the final bill. But I would add something that was missing in the consultative process: data.

Judicial Statistics 2011: Number of defamation claims remains low

The recently published “Judicial Statistics 2011” shows that the number of defamation claims has remained stable, near the low level of 2010.  In 2011 there were 165 issued defamation claims in London (where the large majority of claims are made) – as opposed to 158 in 2010 and 298 in 2009.