LAWYERS SHOCKED AS LCD PREPARES TO REVIEW LIBEL LAW

Lawyers this week expressed surprise at the Lord Chancellor's Department's decision to review libel law in response to 'perceived abuses of defamation procedure'.The Law Commission is producing a short paper on gagging writs and letters - when claimants send threatening correspondence or start proceedings and do nothing more.An LCD spokesman said the study would update the Defamation Act 1996, and review libel's relationship to the Internet.But Nigel Tait, a partner with London libel firm Peter Carter-Ruck and Partners, said: 'I am not aware of any such letters or writs being sent.

Once proceedings are started, you have to go through with them under the Civil Procedure Rules.'Jeremy Fleming