Libel in county courts

The following proposal, publicised as a letter to the Times, was highly commended in the 1991 Social Inventions Awards. The judge who is responsible for this suggestion does not want his name published in connection with the award. Additional information comes from a news item in the Times by Frances Gibb.

Defamation cases should be commenced in the county court and tried by county court judges. The cases are not worth high court time and they do not demand high court skills.

Divorce was once strictly reserved to the high court. Now divorce proceedings must be commenced in the county court. So should defamation cases.

At a stroke the worst blemish on the administration of justice would be removed, and the outrageous damages, costs and delay would be reduced.

There would still be twofold protection against, for instance, a newspaper that decided it could libel with impunity, believing that the damages would be less than the benefit of the increased circulation: (a) damages that can be awarded in the county court will have a substantial L50,000 ceiling and (b) the case is commenced in the county court, but can be referred to a higher court if necessary.

'The case is commenced in the county court, but can be referred to a higher court if necessary'

This proposal was also presented by libel lawyer Brian Raymond at the 1991 Law Society conference. Lord Justice Neill's committee has gone further and recommended the idea of an arbitration scheme to settle small libel cases out of court, with power to award damages of up to about L1,000.

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