View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
September 13, 2005updated 22 Nov 2022 4:45pm

‘No win, no fee’ holding press to ransom, confrence told

By Press Gazette

Leading newspaper lawyer Tony Jaffa has attacked “no win, no fee”
agreements for allowing libel claimants’ lawyers to hold the press to
ransom.

Speaking at the Commonwealth Law Conference today Jaffa
claimed massive legal fees charged under Conditional Fee Agreements
(CFAs) were “imposing intolerable pressure upon media companies to
settle cases, even where the claims against them were unmeritorious”.

Jaffa
told the conference some lawyers were charging £400 an hour in legal
fees which could be doubled to £800 if a CFA claim was successful.

“If
the editor of a small weekly newspaper, in the furthest reaches of the
country, is faced with a complaint from one of the well known
specialist firms of solicitors in London, whom he knows charge their
time at £350 or £400 per hour and whom he also knows charge success
fees of 100 per cent, what is he going to do? “Well, the answer is
obvious. When faced with a threat to the very existence of his title,
he has no option but to take a pragmatic and commercial approach, and
settle the case as quickly and as cheaply as possible.”

Jaffa, a
partner in Foot Anstey, added: “This is not just idle speculation or
scaremongering on my part. Just a few months ago, I had to advise a
client in a matter in which it faced a demand for a complainant’s legal
costs of £20,000, when it’s own legal costs were in the region of only
£2,000. The complaint itself was justified, but the damages the
complainant agreed to accept were dwarfed by his legal fees.”

Jaffa
said of CFAs: “They have more of a regulatory effect on the press than
almost any other development in this country in recent times.”

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Topics in this article :

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network