Crowd funder to support Chris Packham’s libel action passes £115k

A couple of weeks ago I launched a crowd funder to help support Chris Packham’s libel action in two separate cases.

As many of you will know, Chris is currently suing three individuals from Country Squire Magazine (CSM) for alleged defamation (see here), and has recently begun legal proceedings against Fieldsports Channel Ltd and one of its journalists, also for alleged defamation (see here).

The public’s response to the crowd funder has been phenomenal – quickly passing £100K in just ten days, and it has now passed £115K with another 12 days still to run.

If you were one of the 5,944 donors (so far), thank you so very much. The outpouring of support has been deeply appreciated by Chris and his team.

The case against Fieldsports Channel Ltd is still in its early stages but the case against the three individuals from CSM, that has been running for two years, is reaching conclusion with a trial set to start in a few weeks.

There have been numerous hearings in the CSM case already, mostly procedural.

At the most recent hearing, held in the High Court of Justice King’s Bench Division on 30 March 2023, the Honourable Mrs Justice Heather Williams DBE heard an application from CSM Defendants 1 & 2 (Dominic Wightman & Nigel Bean, acting as litigants-in-person) who were seeking specific disclosure and/or inspection of a Schedule of 42 categories of documents.

In response, Chris’s lawyers argued that Chris had provided all disclosable documents not covered by legal professional privilege and that the further documents requested were either irrelevant to the defendant’s case as pleaded, had already been provided, or were not in his control.

The Honourable Mrs Justice Williams DBE considered the application in a two and a half hour hearing and in a lengthy and detailed judgment delivered afterwards she dealt with each of the requests in turn, refusing permission for all 42 of them after deeming the requests speculative and irrelevant.

Here is a copy of her judgement (which is a public document):

The Honourable Mrs Justice Williams DBE further ordered that the First and Second Defendants are to pay the Claimant’s (Chris’s) costs of the Specific Disclosure Application within 14 days. These costs were assessed at £17,500 plus VAT (= £21K).

For clarity, the Third CSM Defendant (Paul Read), who has legal representation, took no part in the Specific Disclosure Application or the associated hearing and is not liable for this particular costs order.

The CSM trial will commence on 2nd May 2023.