UK Libel law change campaign
Ben Goldacre on the launch of the campaign to reform libel law to avoid hampering public scientific dialogue.
I was sued by a pill salesman called Matthias Rath last year in a case which took 19 months to resolve, and cost the Guardian £535,000 to defend. We got £365,000 reimbursed: that means the cost of winning was £170,000, slightly less than the cost of the average house.
[My emphasis].
http://libelreform.org/our-report case for reform.
Background I blogged earlier
later edit14 Jan 2010
Interesting reform proposals from a judge here http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/14/cut-costs-libel-loss
I was sued by a pill salesman called Matthias Rath last year in a case which took 19 months to resolve, and cost the Guardian £535,000 to defend. We got £365,000 reimbursed: that means the cost of winning was £170,000, slightly less than the cost of the average house.
[My emphasis].
http://libelreform.org/our-report case for reform.
Background I blogged earlier
later edit14 Jan 2010
Interesting reform proposals from a judge here http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/14/cut-costs-libel-loss