Newspaper pays for 'fat cats' libel

LIBEL: Daily Mail prints retraction and makes 'substantial' payment to three Liverpool law firms it accused of 'fleecing' council

Three Liverpool solicitors' firms - which the Daily Mail alleged were 'fat cats' 'fleecing' Liverpool City Council - have settled their libel cases against the paper for 'substantial' sums.An article in the Mail in January 1999 had alleged that Higgins & Co, Goldsmith Williams and Irvings, were swamping Liverpool housing estates with leaflets advertising their legal services (see [1999] Gazette, September 15, 4).

The article dubbed the firms' lawyers 'fat cats' for the level of their fees; it alleged the fees were paid for with money from the council's repairs budget.A councillor for Liverpool City Council, Richard Kemp, deputy chairman of the Council's housing committee, was quoted in the article saying the firms were 'Galahads guilty of morally abhorrent behaviour'.The article further alleged that the Law Society had been asked by the council to investigate the firms.

Last September, Goldsmith Williams, which began libel proceedings through London firm David Price & Co, settled its claim.Last week, Mr Price, a solicitor-advocate, read a statement in court on behalf of Paul Higgins, senior partner of Higgins & Co, who hired him to sue the Mail following the success of the Goldsmith case.

The statement said Mr Higgins was withdrawing the action following the offer of payment of a substantial sum from the Mail, and the paper agreeing to publish a summary of the statement which said: 'Higgins & Co act with complete propriety and professionalism on behalf of all their clients, including council tenant clients.'London firm Schilling & Lom, acting for Irvings, settled the action brought against the Mail in a similar fashion.

Schilling & Lom partner Mark Thomson said: 'My clients have won their libel actions against the Mail, who have paid them substantial damages.'

Jeremy Fleming