An £8 million defamation claim against a high-profile tax commentator has become the first lawsuit to be defined by a judge as meeting the statutory definition of strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP).
In Kamal v Tax Policy Associates and Daniel Neidle, Mrs Justice Collins Rice gave summary judgment on a claim brought by Setu Kamal, a barrister practising in tax law, over an online article by Dan Neidle which described as 'nonsense' claims made by a company named Arka Wealth.
Striking out the claim under the 'well-established powers' of the Civil Procedure Rules, the judge described Kamal's conduct of the proceedings as 'a history of compliance failures' and Kamal's behaviour as 'not recognisable as properly conducted litigation'. She also declared the case to be a 'statutory SLAPP' under the provisions of Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act.
The test for such a declaration, she said, is 'all about how litigation is conducted'. This includes an intention to cause the defendant adversities or inconvenience 'beyond that encountered in the course of properly conducted litigation'. The judge described the £8m damages claim as 'spectacularly inflated' and said the claimant had 'intended to interfere with the defendants' journalism beyond his arguable entilements as a defamation claimant'. This included using formal litigation procedures to try to compel access to information about the journalists' sources.
'It is not consistent with the overriding objective to contemplate permitting this case to go to trial in these circumstances,' she said. Even without Kamal's 'unsatisfactory conduct; she 'would have exercised the power to strike out Mr Kamal’s claim on the alternative basis that it was a SLAPP'.
Matthew Gill of the Good Law Project, which acted for Neidle, said the decision 'proves how important anti-SLAPP legislation is for the protection of public interest journalism'. He called on the government to expand the anti-SLAPP law beyond the current realm of economic crime 'to protect survivors of sexual violence, environment defenders, and others who face litigation intended to silence them'.
Setu Kamal appeared in person by remote video link, Greg Callus and Hannah Gilliland, instructed by Good Law Project, for Tax Policy Associates and Dan Neidle
