The court heard an application to read out a statement agreed between the claimant and first defendant, the terms of which were objected to by the BBC.
Held: A statement in the form drafted by the claimant with amendments suggested by the defendant was to be appended to the judgment and read out as required. Morse J set out the principles applicable: ‘(i) A party making a statement should not be allowed to abuse a privilege which attaches to a statement in open court and the publicity which it is doubtless intended to attract. Unfair statements about a third party or another defendant would be an example of an abuse.
(ii) The court must be live to the fact that a statement in open court is intended to attract publicity and ensure that fairness, or unfairness, to a third party or another defendant is viewed in that light.
(iii) It seems to me the parties are generally entitled to state their respective cases in such a statement and their respective admissions. A conceding party is entitled to express its objections in terms which it wishes to use, particularly if they have been agreed with the claimant as part of a settlement. If there are objections as between a third party or another party then that is very likely to be of little consequence.
(iv) Short of an apparent abuse, a statement should be allowed against the objections of a third party or another defendant unless it is sufficiently unfair to require the court to refuse to approve it.
(v) Causing prejudice to a fair trial involving others would be an obvious unfairness. However, unless the trial is a jury trial, it is hard to see how a statement in open court can prejudice that trial given that the trial judge can be expected to ignore such non-evidential material, even if that judge is aware of it. The Barnet case demonstrates that even if there is to be a jury trial the same may still apply.
(vi) Any unfairness which is relied on should be significant and the statement should not be disallowed because of what might be debatable and/or slightly unfair or nit-picking.
(vii) If the case of a non-settling party is referred to in the statement in open court by way of a proper summary, without setting out all the details, that is highly unlikely to be unfair. The case of a non-settling party, if referred to in the statement, does not have to be set out extensively.’
Judges:
Mann J
Citations:
[2017] EWHC 1648 (Ch)
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Barnet v Crozier CA 1987
The court considered an application by a third party to proceedings to prevent a statement being read out in open court in defamation proceedings. Justification had originally been pleaded by both defendants but, as part of a settlement with the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Defamation, Litigation Practice, Torts – Other
Updated: 27 March 2022; Ref: scu.589939
