Tag Archives: justice eady

Conservative MP Jacqui Lait loses libel hearing over expenses

The Evening Standard reports:

The Evening Standard has won a significant victory in a High Court libel battle brought by a Conservative MP.

Jacqui Lait, MP for Beckenham, had sued over an article headlined “Women MPs will be put off by Kelly reforms”.

Mr Justice Eady today struck out elements of her claim and ordered her to pay £10,400 legal costs.

The November 2009 article correctly pointed out Ms Lait had claimed “large sums” to travel to her family home in Sussex even though her constituency home is only 11 miles from Westminster…

The judge said it was “unreal to suggest that readers of

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Justice Eady stands up for political freedom of speech

Cross-posted from The Wardman Wire:

A few weeks ago, Justice Eady (he of News of the World vs Max Mosley) ruled in a legal action taken by a defeated Conservative councillor, Christopher Quinton, against his Liberal Democrat opponent and agent following the 2007 South Oxfordshire elections.

The case arose from comments made in leaflets about local planning and development issues and Christopher Quinton lost the case. He had alleged malicious falsehood against Robin Pierce (the winning candidate) and David Cooper (the agent) over the Liberal Democrat leaflets and also tried an unusual argument under data protection law.

The data protection argument was, …

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Lester: Paul Dacre and Graham Dudman have got it wrong

Part of the recent Paul Dacre attack on Justice Eady (who ruled against the News of the World in the Max Mosley case) was that he was unaccountable for his actions and basically a one-man band introducing a privacy law on his own. He was supported in this attack by The Sun’s managaing editor, Graham Dudman, who said, “The issue here is that Justice Eady is unelected and unaccountable. Parliament has not made these decisions, one man has”.

But Liberal Democrat peer Lord Lester has hit back today, pointing out that when the law on which Eady’s rulings are based …

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