Legal Innovator of the Year Award 2014 - Joanne Wheeler

SmithDehn and Social Construct launch in Derry

Eugene McNamee (@EugeneMcNamee), head of UU School of Law, Zak Kilberg (@SocialConstruct) of Social Construct and Russell Smith (@rsmith8) of Smith Dehn speaking at the joint launch fo SmithDehn LLP and Social Construct in Derry.

 

We were in attendance and had a great time. Big things are happening in Derry, Northern Ireland and Ireland. These are exciting times to be a forward thinking lawyer.

 

Irish News report here.BBC report here. The Lawyer reports here. Derry Daily reports here. SyncNI here. Our previous report from January 7 on the media law curriculum being taught in Derry, and the talk about SmithDehn coming to the second city here.

@clionakimber - Law struggling to keep pace with changes to social media

In an article that focused on heavily on civil wrongs and the civil liabilities of Internet users, barrister Clíona Kimber (@clionakimber) calls for new internet laws and for Internet service providers to take a proactive role in patrolling the online world. She said:

"It can be libellous to communicate in social media, including to tweet or re-tweet, a false statement which harms someone’s reputation. Likewise, if social media is used to publish private information about an individual it could give rise to a potential privacy claim. In both instances, it is possible to seek an injunction and damages. 

This is specialist litigation, and the courts are having to develop new approaches to deal with the speed and ubiquity of internet defamation. Some providers, although based in Ireland, raise jurisdictional issues essentially, maintaining any litigation must be commenced in California. An added complication is that the perpetrator of abuse – who more often than not will have posted under a false identity and/or using more the one account – has to be identified before action can be taken. Victims can get the civil courts to reveal the identity of the user by getting a Norwich Pharmacal Order."

Olivia O’Kane - Northern Ireland Media Law Round Up 2013

The Courts in Northern Ireland heard a wide range of media law cases in 2013. In this post I will provide summaries of the most important cases in which judgments were given and are publicly available.

The innocent court reporter

The case of ZY v. Paul Higgins ([2013] NIQB 8) was heard on 25 January 2013. It concerned the Article 2 rights of a convicted child sex offender seeking anonymity to continue after conviction in order to safeguard his wellbeing from risk of suicide within the confines of Prison when it appeared a journalist was to write a piece to distributed to the mainstream media.

On 2 September 2011 ZY, a male in his 20s, was arrested and charged with attempting to blackmail a female in relation to an indecent video recording made when she was 15 years of age; engaging in sexual activity with a minor; and possessing indecent images of children. On 7 December 2012 ZY pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment. Following sentencing, representations were made on behalf of the first defendant journalist, Paul Higgins, seeking revocation of the anonymity order which had been made at the first remand hearing.

James Delingpole - "Twitter is a publishing medium more dangerous than any that has ever before existed"

James Delingpole (@JamesDelingpole) wrote an article in The Spectator magazine, 'How Twitter almost destroyed me.' He called Twitter, "the perpetually gaping maw of the gigantic elephant trap that is Twitter." He said of the micro-blogging site here:

"Twitter is a publishing medium more dangerous than any that has ever before existed. The problem is that it is once trivially ephemeral and hideously permanent. Whatever your state of mind, whether you’re drunk or sober, depressed or euphoric, it’s there waiting to capture your every thought from the moment you wake up to the moment you check your Twitter feed one last time before you go to sleep."

Paul Tweed - Twitter is likely to be one of the key legal battlegrounds of the next decade

Stan Collymore highlights what is likely to be one of the key legal battlegrounds of the next decade http://t.co/84BAZgAaJp @StanCollymore
— Paul Tweed (@Paul_Tweed) January 22, 2014

Paul Tweed letter to the Financial Times

The Financial Times published a letter by Belfast media lawyer Paul Tweed.

From Mr Paul Tweed. 

Sir, You report (“Reducing costs of UK libel actions could cause wave of litigation”, November 4) that a media law firm has suggested that the proposed Qualified One-Way Costs Shifting “would hurt small publishers disproportionately”. 

However, the proposed costs protection order may also be granted in favour of a regional newspaper or publisher with limited financial means as well as an impecunious claimant. In other words, both claimants and defendants with limited means may not have to pay costs if it is determined to be in the overall interests of justice. 

Paul Tweed, Senior Partner, Johnsons Law Firm, London SW1, UK

Read in the FT here. Read on Scribd here and here.

The Good Law Initiative

Efforts are being made to simplify British legislation for the sake of people, businesses, politicians and even lawyers who struggle with incoherent and impenetrable law speak.

Read more in the Telegraph here.