Friday 19 November 2010

School Governors allowed to sue Local Authorities for Libel

The High Court has been asked to consider whether the rule which prevents public authorities from suing in libel (to allow uninhibited criticism of government institutions) also has the effect of preventing libel actions being taken by individual managers and employees of those institutions.

This was a claim by the defendants to strike out a libel action on grounds of abuse of process.The claimants are respectively head teacher, director of educational development and chairman of school governors of a primary school in Lambeth.

They brought claims for libel and under the Human Rights Act (“HRA”) in respect of emails, widely published by the London Borough of Lambeth, alleging financial and employee mismanagement at the school. The HRA claim was under the right to reputation protected by Article 8. The claimants sought a declaration of falsity in relation to the allegations and damages pursuant to the right to a remedy under Section 8 HRA.


Full Story can be found here

http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2010/11/04/school-governors-allowed-to-sue-in-libel/

No comments:

Post a Comment