Campaigners have been pushing for libel reform, but Carter-Ruck’s Nigel Tait and Athalie Matthews say the proposed Defamation Bill is overcomplicated and unwieldy
In his 1852 novel Bleak House, Charles Dickens wryly observes: “The one great principle of the English law is to make business for itself.” If the Government’s new draft Defamation Bill is anything to go by, this certainly holds true in 2011, given that its main achievement will be to keep lawyers in work. For this (and for this only), I heartily recommend the Bill to my profession.
