This is excellent news from the Good Law Project:
The High Court has dismissed an £8m defamation claim brought against a journalist, branding it “spectacularly inflated” and intentionally “oppressive”.
The claim, brought by barrister Setu Kamal, related to an article by tax law expert Dan Neidle which criticised Kamal's involvement in a dodgy tax avoidance scheme.
After Kamal made a failed application for an injunction which the court said contained “a catalogue of procedural and substantive failings”, he issued an extraordinary claim against Dan for more than £8m.
I do not always agree with Dan Neidle, but I have no doubt that he was sued totally inappropriately on this occasion and was delighted that the Good Law Project joined in to support his defence.
This is the first occasion on which a libel claim has been brought down under the new SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) laws, but I still agree with this comment from the Good Law Project:
We're delighted we've won, but the law still needs reform to stop bad actors using the law to silence whistleblowers.
Libel law has too often been used to prevent the truth from being told, and that undermines our democracy.
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Remember how Maxwell got away with what he did thanks to the libel laws?
Worth pointing out that UK Libel awards are not enforceable abroad such is the way they are viewed BUT you cannot access many websites hosted abroad from the UK because they dont want to be vulnerable to libel action being taken against them in the UK
I admire and support The Good Law project, although not always agreeing with Jo Maugham’s views on political matters. Great to see them achieving a headline win in this matter.