Media calls in Caldecott to fight disclosure injunction

The Law Society is to face the wrath of the world’s media organisations after it won a last minute injunction on new disclosure rules for court documents.

The Times Newspapers litigation head Gill Philips has instructed libel defence specialist Andrew Caldecott QC at One Brick Court to confront the Law Society at Thursday’s High Court hearing on the court disclosure rules.

Philips and Caldecott will represent the interests of the Telegraph Group, Guardian Newspapers, Independent News and Media, FT Limited, MGN, BBC, NewsGroup Newspapers, Bloomberg and Associated Newspapers.

Late on Friday (29 September) the Law Society, represented by Schillings, won a last minute injunction to stop pleadings and defence of claim being made immediately available to the public from the following Monday (2 October).

As revealed by TheLawyer.com earlier today, The Law Society claims it was worried about documents being made public retrospectively.

However, Philips told The Lawyer: “We are concerned about the way in which this has happened. The rules have been on the cards for three months, so doing it ex-parte at 4pm on a Friday without even telling the Court Service is a little unusual.”

Philips said media organisations should have been informed of the injunction, as it was an interested party.

Schillings founder Keith Schilling, with associate Gideon Benaim, advised the Law Society. They instructed barristers Richard Spearman QC at 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square and Jonathan Barnes at 5 Raymond Buildings.