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Something rotten in the state of Denmark?
Firstly, hello all, very pleased to have found this forum! ok, so this is complicated but I'll try to be brief (I may fail so make a cuppa and sit back!) ...
I have just settled out of court on a claim of defamation but something feels wrong. I'm sure civil law was never meant to be "weaponized" in this way?
The brief history is that until mid December 2018, I was founder and administrator of a large Facebook "community" Group. In August that year, a post was made by someone (let's call him Mr X) alleging someone else (Mr Y - the claimant) to be "A ****ing angry little man" and published a photo of said "angry man". As an administrator, we removed the offending post about an hour after publication as we had a policy of not allowing "name & shame" posts. Nonetheless, unbeknown to me at that time, Mr Y had engaged a defamation specialist solicitor on a CFA basis and issued Mr X with a letter before action.
At this time, I also received a "pseudo legal" letter direct from Mr Y demanding "recompense" from me or "alternative action would be taken". I think at this point he was trying to somehow prove negligence on my part for allowing the original post to be made and I definitely perceived this as a threat.
Mr X (the defendant), previously unknown to me, telephoned me absolutely distraught asking me to allow a public apology to be posted on the Facebook Group and informing me he had also had to pay "a significant amount of money" to settle the case - I don't think the poor chap could afford legal representation and had to completely rollover on the settlement terms. I also received an email from the claimant demanding that I allow the post of apology to be made and visible for a minimum 7 days. I replied advising that I would do so providing it was within ours and Facebook's community standards but I did advise him that up to this point, nobody knew his name and that by insisting the post of apology be made, he risked a public backlash and further damage to his reputation and to reconsider. He didn't and, I was right, his name was now in the public domain and many other people (50+) started to comment - mostly derogatory towards the claimant. In retrospect, I should never have allowed the post to be published but, I did.
I removed many of the derogatory posts as they happened in order to limit any further damage. My mistake then was to make a reply to the "apology post" saying "Let's be careful what we say in public as MrY has shown himself to be a litigious bully". The post was removed after 7 days, as requested. That was on or about 27th November 2018.
I heard no more about it until 10th December when I received a string of phone calls in rapid succession on both mobile and landline from a very irate Mr Y accusing me of telling lies about him, demanding recompense and threatening to get me sacked as chair of a community group I was a member of. On each call I said "I'm not prepared to have this conversation" and hung up, but he just kept ringing back. On the final call (5 in total?) I snapped and called him a "snivelling little shit". I shouldn't have done but, like I say, I snapped. He then told me he had recorded the phone calls and would be taking it further.
Fast forward to 23rd January 2019 - the police arrived at my house to question me about a complaint they had received from Mr Y for threatening behaviour. I relayed the story about the "harassing" phone calls from Mr Y and showed them several of his "threatening" emails and they left happy there was no case to answer. Nonetheless, it was a very distressing experience.
30th January 2019 I received papers from MR Y's solicitors claiming defamation on the key point of calling him a "litigious bully" (ironic really) and stating that unless I agreed to pay "substantial damages" (no sum of money was stated) they would pursue litigation.
At this point it got serious for me. Do you know how difficult it is to find a defamation specialist solicitor? A couple of local firms claimed a conflict of interest and others simply said they didn't have the expertise available to defend the case. I ended up, almost in desperation, using the Direct Access Portal to engage a specialist Barrister to defend the case. In very short order, he refuted the claim on several points of law and precedents. That was not enough to deter Mr Y's solicitor who responded, basically, dismissing the Barrister's letter and claiming to have even more evidence against me (goodness knows what?) but this time detailing the terms of a settlement - letter of apology, a stated sum of money and a non-repetition agreement - basically a gagging order.
At this point and after paying the Barrister (a good and very learned fellow but hellishly expensive) it became a financial decision - frankly, I had run out of liquid assets and was now involved in what seemd like a very high stakes game of poker. I decided to bit the bullet and settle under their terms.
Since then, certain things have come to light which have made me think that perhaps I shouldn't have settled quite so easily - but it was scary, seriously scary to be on the end of a defamation claim and I just wanted it to go away as I'd become sleep deprived, unable to concentrate on work and my marriage was also suffering under the strain.
Anyway, I now discover that ...
Mr X (the original defendant) went through the same "bullying process". Threats, phone calls and emails from Mr Y, culminating in a formal case of defamation - settled out of court.
Another administrator on our ex Facebook Group (call her Ms Z) is now going through the same process with him - threats, phone calls and, as we speak, she's holding her breath waiting for papers from Mr Y's solicitor. What she did differently though was to report Mr Y to the police for harassment (I wish I had thought of that) and the police told her they had received a number of complaints about Mr Y for the same issues (speculation of course at this time). Anyway, she has a crime number but who knows if it'll go further - not sure it matters?
The situation with me now is that I have settled and effectively "gagged" from talking about the case in any detail. A big part of me just wants to let it go, swallow the cost and get on with life but, frankly, something just smells wrong. If feels like Mr Y and his "no win no fee" solicitor have found a good and profitable money making scheme and are pursuing it with vigour and, each time, the modus operandi is the same.
I suppose the questions I have are these.
1) I think the claimant's solicitor hasn't adhered to the spirit and word of the CPR - specifically not stating how much money was required for a settlement in the first instance - that seems to matter - but the "bullying" nature of his corrospance also doesn't sit right?
2) By sending hard copy papers to a wrong address, causing the letter to be opened by god knows who and clearly displaying my name and email address in the window of the envelope - has he breached any GDPR or confidentially guidelines - is that worth pursuing?
3) Should I now also report Mr X for harassment to the police? The investigating officer did tell Ms Z that if she knew of anyone else who had been involved to also contact the police.
4) Should I just let it go and get on with life? A part of me though just feels that, surely, he can't be allowed to go on with this "threatening, bullying, litigious" process - each case he "wins" provides him with the basis for pursuing someone else. He seems to be making a career of it as no normal person is going to be able to afford to go to High Court to defend the claim - even if they win and costs are awarded, you still need to have the money (or insurance) in-place first, I believe.
5) Does any of this matter as I've now settled, albeit under some duress?
Anyway, if you're still with this, thank you for reading. That WAS the brief version, I promise! Any thoughts or comments gratefully received. Thanks in advance.
I have just settled out of court on a claim of defamation but something feels wrong. I'm sure civil law was never meant to be "weaponized" in this way?
The brief history is that until mid December 2018, I was founder and administrator of a large Facebook "community" Group. In August that year, a post was made by someone (let's call him Mr X) alleging someone else (Mr Y - the claimant) to be "A ****ing angry little man" and published a photo of said "angry man". As an administrator, we removed the offending post about an hour after publication as we had a policy of not allowing "name & shame" posts. Nonetheless, unbeknown to me at that time, Mr Y had engaged a defamation specialist solicitor on a CFA basis and issued Mr X with a letter before action.
At this time, I also received a "pseudo legal" letter direct from Mr Y demanding "recompense" from me or "alternative action would be taken". I think at this point he was trying to somehow prove negligence on my part for allowing the original post to be made and I definitely perceived this as a threat.
Mr X (the defendant), previously unknown to me, telephoned me absolutely distraught asking me to allow a public apology to be posted on the Facebook Group and informing me he had also had to pay "a significant amount of money" to settle the case - I don't think the poor chap could afford legal representation and had to completely rollover on the settlement terms. I also received an email from the claimant demanding that I allow the post of apology to be made and visible for a minimum 7 days. I replied advising that I would do so providing it was within ours and Facebook's community standards but I did advise him that up to this point, nobody knew his name and that by insisting the post of apology be made, he risked a public backlash and further damage to his reputation and to reconsider. He didn't and, I was right, his name was now in the public domain and many other people (50+) started to comment - mostly derogatory towards the claimant. In retrospect, I should never have allowed the post to be published but, I did.
I removed many of the derogatory posts as they happened in order to limit any further damage. My mistake then was to make a reply to the "apology post" saying "Let's be careful what we say in public as MrY has shown himself to be a litigious bully". The post was removed after 7 days, as requested. That was on or about 27th November 2018.
I heard no more about it until 10th December when I received a string of phone calls in rapid succession on both mobile and landline from a very irate Mr Y accusing me of telling lies about him, demanding recompense and threatening to get me sacked as chair of a community group I was a member of. On each call I said "I'm not prepared to have this conversation" and hung up, but he just kept ringing back. On the final call (5 in total?) I snapped and called him a "snivelling little shit". I shouldn't have done but, like I say, I snapped. He then told me he had recorded the phone calls and would be taking it further.
Fast forward to 23rd January 2019 - the police arrived at my house to question me about a complaint they had received from Mr Y for threatening behaviour. I relayed the story about the "harassing" phone calls from Mr Y and showed them several of his "threatening" emails and they left happy there was no case to answer. Nonetheless, it was a very distressing experience.
30th January 2019 I received papers from MR Y's solicitors claiming defamation on the key point of calling him a "litigious bully" (ironic really) and stating that unless I agreed to pay "substantial damages" (no sum of money was stated) they would pursue litigation.
At this point it got serious for me. Do you know how difficult it is to find a defamation specialist solicitor? A couple of local firms claimed a conflict of interest and others simply said they didn't have the expertise available to defend the case. I ended up, almost in desperation, using the Direct Access Portal to engage a specialist Barrister to defend the case. In very short order, he refuted the claim on several points of law and precedents. That was not enough to deter Mr Y's solicitor who responded, basically, dismissing the Barrister's letter and claiming to have even more evidence against me (goodness knows what?) but this time detailing the terms of a settlement - letter of apology, a stated sum of money and a non-repetition agreement - basically a gagging order.
At this point and after paying the Barrister (a good and very learned fellow but hellishly expensive) it became a financial decision - frankly, I had run out of liquid assets and was now involved in what seemd like a very high stakes game of poker. I decided to bit the bullet and settle under their terms.
Since then, certain things have come to light which have made me think that perhaps I shouldn't have settled quite so easily - but it was scary, seriously scary to be on the end of a defamation claim and I just wanted it to go away as I'd become sleep deprived, unable to concentrate on work and my marriage was also suffering under the strain.
Anyway, I now discover that ...
Mr X (the original defendant) went through the same "bullying process". Threats, phone calls and emails from Mr Y, culminating in a formal case of defamation - settled out of court.
Another administrator on our ex Facebook Group (call her Ms Z) is now going through the same process with him - threats, phone calls and, as we speak, she's holding her breath waiting for papers from Mr Y's solicitor. What she did differently though was to report Mr Y to the police for harassment (I wish I had thought of that) and the police told her they had received a number of complaints about Mr Y for the same issues (speculation of course at this time). Anyway, she has a crime number but who knows if it'll go further - not sure it matters?
The situation with me now is that I have settled and effectively "gagged" from talking about the case in any detail. A big part of me just wants to let it go, swallow the cost and get on with life but, frankly, something just smells wrong. If feels like Mr Y and his "no win no fee" solicitor have found a good and profitable money making scheme and are pursuing it with vigour and, each time, the modus operandi is the same.
I suppose the questions I have are these.
1) I think the claimant's solicitor hasn't adhered to the spirit and word of the CPR - specifically not stating how much money was required for a settlement in the first instance - that seems to matter - but the "bullying" nature of his corrospance also doesn't sit right?
2) By sending hard copy papers to a wrong address, causing the letter to be opened by god knows who and clearly displaying my name and email address in the window of the envelope - has he breached any GDPR or confidentially guidelines - is that worth pursuing?
3) Should I now also report Mr X for harassment to the police? The investigating officer did tell Ms Z that if she knew of anyone else who had been involved to also contact the police.
4) Should I just let it go and get on with life? A part of me though just feels that, surely, he can't be allowed to go on with this "threatening, bullying, litigious" process - each case he "wins" provides him with the basis for pursuing someone else. He seems to be making a career of it as no normal person is going to be able to afford to go to High Court to defend the claim - even if they win and costs are awarded, you still need to have the money (or insurance) in-place first, I believe.
5) Does any of this matter as I've now settled, albeit under some duress?
Anyway, if you're still with this, thank you for reading. That WAS the brief version, I promise! Any thoughts or comments gratefully received. Thanks in advance.
For the record, I'm not suggesting anything conspiratorial. n My Barrister was quite clear about there not being any evidence of defamation. I can't discuss the amount settled but let's say it's somewhere between fair and life-changing.
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