Plans to saddle newspapers with the cost of legal disputes regardless of fault are “wrong in principle” and could play into the hands of ambulance-chasing lawyers, the head of a parliamentary committee has said.
Damian Collins, chairman of the culture, media and sport committee, said the proposals should not be implemented as they risked harming freedom of the press – and thus democracy – while filling solicitors’ coffers.
The Conservative MP said press regulation was an important issue, but the greatest threat to the media’s credibility came from the rise of “fake news” on social media and elsewhere, rather than from newspapers.
In an article for the Daily Telegraph, he argued against the activation of section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act. Should the clause be introduced, judges in libel and privacy cases would have the power to order publications to pay a plaintiff’s legal costs, win or lose. A government consultation on the issue ends on Tuesday.
“It is hard to think of any other area of law where such a provision would be allowed,” Collins said. “Some have said that the risk of heavy costs being awarded against the newspapers is not as great as some fear. But I believe it is wrong in principle, and once established could create a new industry of ambulance-chasing lawyers encouraging people to hire them on no-win, no-fee terms to take up complaints against the press. These lawyers could set high fees and know that there would be a good chance of getting paid even if they lost the case.”