The claimant sought damages in defamation. His child had been murdered by his estranged former partner and her new man. In the course of extraordinarily intense publicity the defendant had wrongly described him as a convicted rapist. He was and remained a man of entirely good character. An agreed apology had been published but the parties had failed to agree damages. Further misattributions of the rape conviction during the negotiations made matters worse.
Held: The court fixed a starting point figure of andpound;150,000 and then made an appropriate reduction (assessed at 50%) to take account of all mitigating factors, including the willingness of MGN Ltd to use the offer of amends procedure. He awarded KC andpound;75,000.
Judges:
Bean J
Citations:
[2012] EWHC 483 (QB)
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Appeal from – Cairns v Modi CA 31-Oct-2012
Three appeals against the levels of damages awards were heard together, and the court considered the principles to be applied.
Held: In assessing compensation following a libel, the essential question was how much loss and damage did the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Defamation, Damages
Updated: 05 October 2022; Ref: scu.451793