by David Cooper
“What about the firm representing him?” Lennie asked. “Are they big players?”
“Watts & Watts? No, they’re a small local firm much better known for plaintiff personal injury work. Do you ever listen to the local radio in the morning? No? Ever since the Law Society lifted the ban on solicitors advertising, some firms started using dreadful radio commercials to drum up business. When conditional fees came in, Watts & Watts were first off the mark. Just imagine someone singing 'no win no fee' to the chimes of Big Ben and carrying on in much the same way, and you should get the picture.”
“So how come they took on this case?”
“Good question. For all I know, Donnelly might have asked them to do this one on a conditional arrangement. As the radio advert said, no win no fee. Not that the rules theoretically allow that in these cases. No, I just felt that they were out of their depth. I hoped they might crawl back under a stone as soon as we stood up to them.”
“Obviously they didn't.”
“That's true, but they were bluffing in their letter. It took them another month before they issued the writ. Perhaps Donnelly had cold feet. On the other hand, they did go on to say what they wanted just before they served the writ.”
“Yes, I saw that. Two hundred grand and a grovelling apology!”
“Notice anything else interesting about that?” said Alex, deciding to slip in a question of his own. Lennie hesitated.
“Well, maybe the apology would have made people more suspicious about Donnelly?”
“Good point, but that's not what I had in mind. Did you notice the comment that Donnelly would be donating a large proportion of the two hundred grand to charity? The original demand only wanted a payment to charity, nothing to Donnelly. That's what really annoyed Bill Holroyd, the editor. Did you know he used to be editor at one of the national tabloids? Yes? Well, as soon as he saw that, he was on the phone ranting about bloody vultures. Even asked me to tell Watts & Watts that as a rugby league man, he'd be only too happy to give Donnelly a proper lesson in kicking balls.”
Lennie sniggered. “Christ, he sounds like a real character. What did you do?”
“I just faxed them back and said that we stood by our previous letter.”
“How come they sued him too, rather than just the paper?”
“I’m sure it’s only a gesture.” Alex replied. “In libel law, the buck stops with the editor over what goes out in print. That means he and the paper are jointly liable, at least in legal theory. But the paper’s always the main target, and if the worst comes to the worst the editor’s always indemnified by the paper.”
At that moment the door opened. In came the marketing partner Warwick Thornbury. “Can we have a word, Alex - oh, hello Lennie, surprised you're still here. How’s life in litigation? Bet you can't wait to come back to corporate, eh?”
Lennie thought rapidly to find a diplomatic response. “It's early days. I can't make my mind up just yet.”
Alex quickly suppressed a scowl as Thornbury looked back in his direction. He had just noticed once more, with irritation, an unanswered memo from Thornbury headed 'Client Hospitality' which had been sitting on a far corner of his desk for over a week.
“I'm in the middle of explaining the Black Country Herald trial to Lennie. If you're still around later, I could come and see you.”
Thornbury nodded and left without another word. Alex immediately banished him from his thoughts and tried to turn back to the task in hand. But Lennie’s smirk was a temporary distraction.
“Something funny?”
“Oh, nothing really. It’s just that when I was in corporate, I was allocated to sit with Melanie Marsh, one of their associates. Warwick was too grand, or as he put it too busy, to have a trainee of his own but he kept dropping in with jobs for me to do. There was one time when he came out with this piece of wisdom about corporate lawyers being deal makers, and litigators being deal breakers.”
Alex thought for a moment. “There’s another side to that one. I always say litigators are arse kickers. Work the rest out for yourself.” Lennie suppressed a giggle and Alex went on.
“OK, so they served their statement of claim. We put our defence in, and the court fixed a directions timetable. That's when we won the first battle. Did you notice that they split their complaint into two parts - the lack of organisation, and the drug business? They tried to change their tune. They asked the court for leave to drop their complaints on what the paper said about the convoy organisation, and demanded an order to strike out the corresponding sections from our defence.”
“Why did they do that?”
“They must have thought that Donnelly’s case on the drug business was stronger in isolation. Didn't want to give us a chance to bang home some decent evidence on the first head, and let it carry over into the second. It's more of a technical legal argument on that one, whether there was an innuendo. Anyway, we lost that one in front of the district judge, but won on appeal. Quite an irony, that. The judge decided that the case had to go forward to trial in full, because of the way that Watts & Watts wrote the original threatening letter. That will teach Jessica Watts to be such a migbin.”
“Migbin?”
“Mouth in gear, brain in neutral.”
Lennie laughed again. “Corporate was never this amusing. So why did you pay fifty grand into court after you exchanged witness statements?”
“Right. If you looked at Counsel's Opinion on the evidence, you’ll have seen what he said about how uncertain it was, even these days, to let a case like this go in front of a jury. Too much emotion, witnesses of unknown quality, and a semi-celebrity plaintiff. Even though he felt sure we'd win on the disorganisation issues, and that our chances on the innuendo were better than even, he still felt it might be too much for a jury to take on board properly. That's half the reason. It's also why we're having tomorrow's consultation with Tom Campbell QC. He’ll be leading for us at trial, and it’s his first chance to give us his view.”
“And the other half?”
“Business issues. The majority shareholder in the Black Country Herald, Charles Ballard, died six months ago, and his sons decided they wanted to go public and float the company. They thought they could realise some of their personal holdings and boost the business at the same time. Their merchant bankers thought that if this case was still active, it would give the market the wrong impression. That's why we ended up deciding to rattle Donnelly’s cage by offering him a way out. Not that Bill Holroyd was too impressed, but he soon came round when the Ballards reminded him about his share options.”
“Can you remind me how that works? It’s over a year since I studied litigation.”
“The payment into court? Don't they explain anything on the finals course these days? It's all down to trying to force a compromise. The defendant pays the money into the Court Funds Office and tells the plaintiff that’s what he's done. The plaintiff has the right to accept it within 21 days, and in broad terms that settles the case if he does. It's not quite so straightforward in libel, but that's the general picture. The main point is that the goalposts move against the plaintiff if he's determined to fight on for more. The risk for Donnelly here is that if he doesn't get more than fifty grand from the jury, he has to pick up the costs from then on. That’s because, for all practical purposes, the trial would have been futile for him. That would virtually wipe out his award in a case like this. You need to bear in mind that any off the record proposal like this is concealed from the judge, until the jury decide the case.”
“Yes, now that you put it like that, I seem to remember one of the big injury cases turning out like that. The victim was supposed to have ended up with nothing, just because of a trap in the rules.”
“Precisely. That's why I'd have expected Jessica Watts to tell Donnelly to take the money and run. But she just demanded two hundred grand again. Even the Ballards weren’t having that.”
“I'm glad they weren’t, when the trial’s only a couple of month
s away. It's not every trainee who gets to see something like that. Mind if I call it a day now? I'm getting thirsty.” Lennie stood up and made for the door.
“Good idea. I'd join you all, if I didn't have to go and see our illustrious marketing partner.”
“You could always bring him down the pub. That would be a miracle.” Alex smiled as Lennie left the room.
