Month: January 2019

22.01.19

Facebook ‘Keyboard warrior’ ordered to pay £55,000 in libel and harassment damages after false accusations of animal cruelty and orchestration of online hate campaign

  In Suttle v Walker [2019] EWHC 396 QB Mr Justice Nicklin ordered Samantha Walker to pay care home manager Kim Suttle £55,685.06 in libel and harassment damages after instigating a hate campaign against her based on false allegations that she had abused her dog. Facts The Claimant Ms Suttle was walking one of her dogs…

15.01.19

Career opportunities at Brett Wilson LLP

The firm is expanding.  We are presently recruiting solicitors and a paralegal in our media law department.  In our civil, regulatory and white collar-crime department, we are recruiting a civil litigation solicitor and a paralegal/trainee solicitor.  Full details of the role and how to apply can be found at our Careers page.

Solicitor fined for calling a potential client a ‘nutter’

A solicitor of nearly 40 years PQE has been fined £5,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) for sending a string of emails calling a potential client a ‘nutter’, ‘crazy man with a death wish’ and an ‘asshole’. Tim Bennett’s conduct was referred to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) by The Society of Trusts and…

Serial abuser of Judges Committed to Prison for Contempt

In Foskett, Peters and Waschckuhn v Ezeugo [2018] EWHC 3694 (QB), three Judges applied for the committal to prison of a man who had repeatedly breached a harassment injunction made in their favour. From time to time, an individual’s involvement in the justice system, often initially by chance through a minor criminal conviction, a divorce,…

11.01.19

Barrister fined for sending cocaine to chambers

Richard Keogh, who was called to the bar in 1991, has been reprimanded and fined by the Bar Standards Board [‘BSB’] after he “inadvertently” sent cocaine to a chambers in April 2018. In May 2018, Mr Keogh subsequently accepted a police caution for possession of a class A drug, contrary to Section 5(2) of and…

Victory for Google at European level on the scope of delisting

On 10 January 2019, Advocate General Maciej Szpunar provided his written opinion to the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) on the territorial scope of requests to delist search engine results under the ‘right to be forgotten’ principle, which (in the context of search engines at least) was established in May 2014 in…

Sex: A duty to ask in advance?

Sir John Gillen, a former appeal court judge, has conducted a review of the law and procedures of serious sexual offences in Northern Ireland. That review has published its Preliminary findings here. Sir John’s Preliminary Report makes 16 key recommendations, many of which seem entirely sensible. Overall, it is a very strong body of work….

8.01.19

Monir v Wood: Think before you allow someone else to tweet on your behalf

In a very detailed judgment in the case of Monir v Wood [2018] EWHC 3525 (QB), Mr Justice Nicklin set out the law in relation to various complex issues that can arise in a libel claim.  The purpose of this article is not to summarise and comment on the entirety of the case, but instead…