The number of defamation cases to reach the courts is declining, research suggested this week.

According to Sweet & Maxwell's law reports services, there were 66 defamation court cases in the year to 31 May 2005, down from 85 the year before. They reached a peak of 96 in 1999-2000.


Korieh Duodu, a barrister at London media law firm David Price Solicitors & Advocates, said the fall over the past five years 'is certainly indicative of the fact that the Woolf reforms are starting to take full effect, with litigants being able to achieve their objectives without having to take cases all the way to trial'.


He said judges are making more use of the case management powers to weed out weak cases early.


Mr Duodu added that the House of Lords' ruling in Reynolds v Times Newspapers [1999] UKHL 45, which allowed the media to make wider use of the defence of qualified privilege, has also contributed.


Courts are now taking their place as the venue of last resort in libel disputes, he said.


Meanwhile, human rights specialist Gareth Peirce has been named as the solicitor most frequently cited in UK newspapers in the year to 30 June 2005, in separate research by Sweet & Maxwell.


She featured in 176 articles in the national and regional press, followed by fellow human rights solicitors Louise Christian (158) and Phil Shiner (103). Three other solicitors in the field - Mudassar Arani, Natalia Garcia and Geoffrey Bindman - were in the top ten, which was rounded out by: Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva (who is not a qualified solicitor) with 89; former Law Society President Edward Nally (84); Colin Ettinger, former president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (28); and London solicitor Mark Stephens (27).


The most referenced City solicitor was Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's senior partner, Anthony Salz, who was joint 11th (22 articles) with Manchester personal injury solicitor Andrew Twambley, star of the BBC fly-on-the-wall documentary, 'No Win, No Fee'.