A partner at one of the country’s leading defamation firms is being prosecuted for an alleged misuse of litigation.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority said today that it had decided to prosecute Claire Gill of Carter-Ruck after finding there was a case to answer. The decision was reached in March but details were published today. The case will be heard before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and the firm has pledged to support Gill to defend the matter.
It is alleged that, in April 2017, Gill sent or arranged to be sent correspondence which contained an ‘improper threat of litigation’.
No further details were given about the correspondence, but the case is the latest SRA prosecution relating to alleged use of SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation).
The regulator said earlier this year that solicitors must take steps to satisfy themselves that cases they bring on behalf of clients are properly arguable. Action would be taken where solicitors were found to have acted inappropriately through abusive litigation aimed at silencing legitimate criticism.
Gill is described on the Carter-Ruck website as a leading lawyer in defamation, privacy, data protection and protection from harassment. She specialises in ‘sensitive disputes for clients who are in the media spotlight’ and helps companies and high-profile individuals ‘deal with unwanted media scrutiny, with a view to preventing publication of material that would infringe their rights to reputation, confidentiality and privacy’.
Campaign group the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition has cited as an example of a SLAPP Carter-Ruck’s representation of a prominent Malaysian politician in a 2017 defamation action against Briitsh journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown. The case settled in 2019. The SRA declined to state whether this was the subject of the prosecution.
In a statement, Carter-Ruck said: ‘We are disappointed by the SRA’s decision to bring these proceedings against our colleague, who we will be fully supporting in her defence of this matter.’
