Charles Elphicke v Times Media Ltd
| Judge | . The |
| Neutral Citation | [2024] EWHC 2595 (KB) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Court | King's Bench Division |
| Counsel | Mr Ben Silverstone |
| Date | 14 October 2024 |
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE [2024] EWHC 2595 (KB)
Claim No QB-2019-001414
KING'S BENCH DIVISION
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS LIST
B E T W E E N:
CHARLES ELPHICKE
Claimant
-and-
TIMES MEDIA LIMITED
(formerly Times Newspapers Limited)
Keywords: collateral use of witness statements – failure to preserve
evidence – costs on discontinuance – reporting restrictions –
defamation – rape – transgender ideology – recusal - women – costs –
mandatory alternative dispute resolution – detailed assessment –
misconduct – costs judges – costs lawyers - Samuel Beckett
--
Simple language summary. This summary is written at average reading age
and whilst it does not form part of the judgment it must be reproduced with it.
The Claimant was a former Member of Parliament. He sued the Defendant for damage to his
reputation. He ended his case before there was a trial. The rules said that if a person ends his
case early he has to pay the other side’s legal costs.
The Claimant asked the court an order which changed that. He wanted not to pay the
Defendant’s costs. The Defendant disagreed and wanted all its costs and a payment towards
them.
The Claimant said the Defendant broke rules about how a party in a court case must behave
and that the Judge should punish the Defendant by reducing its legal costs.
The Judge considered whether she should step aside and not decide the case. This was
because part of the case was about a woman who alleged she was a rape victim.
The Judge made four decisions:
She decided that she did not have to withdraw from the case because of being a transsexual
woman and that the first and last duty of a judge is to decide a case. Neither party objected to
her deciding it.
She decided that two breaches of rules justified reducing the costs of the Defendant by one
fifth. Those were a failure to preserve evidence, and a breach of the rules about using
documents in a court case for other things.
She ordered that the decisions about how much costs would be awarded and whether other
wrong behaviour which the Claimant said had happened should be considered by the Costs
Judge.
She ordered that the parties should not commence the process for assessing legal costs until
they had a proper process of dispute resolution about them. She ordered that if they did do so
they would have to be able to explain why.
--
Representation:
The Claimant in person
The Defendant represented by Mr Ben Silverstone instructed by Reynolds
Porter Chamberlain
Cases cited to the court (whether or not referred to in judgment)
Attorney General v Newspaper Publishing plc [1997] 1 WLR 926
Hollywood Realisations Trust v Lexington Insurance Co [2003] EWHC 996
(Comm)
Dunnett v Railtrack plc [2002] EWCA Civ 303
Halsey v Milton Keynes General NHS Trust [2004] 4 All ER 920
Re Walker Wingsail Systems PLC [2006] 1 WLR 2194
Finster v Arriva [2007] EWHC 90070 (Costs)
Lahey v Pirelli Tyres Ltd [2007] EWCA Civ 91
Widlake v BAA [2009] EWCA Civ 1256
Messih v MacMillan Williams [2010] EWCA Civ 844
Teasdale v HSBC Bank PLC [2010] EWHC 612 (QB)
Brookes v HSBC Bank [2011] EWCA Civ 354
Fox v Foundation Piling [2011] 6 Costs LR 961
Abbott v Long [2012] RTR 1
R (Guardian News and Media) v City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court
[2012] EWCA Civ 420
Nelson’s Yard Management Co v Eziefula [2013] CP Rep 29
Pink v Victoria’s Secret [2015] Costs LR 463
Excalibur Ventures LLC v Texas Keystone Inc [2015] EWHC 566 (Comm)
MacInnes v Gross [2017] 4 WLR 49
Blue v Ashley [2017] EWHC 1553 (Comm) Ashany v Eco-Bat Technologies
Ltd [2018] 3 Costs LO 387
Gempride v Bamrah [2018] EWCA Civ 1367
Bank of St Petersburg v Arkhangelsky [2018] EWHC 2817 (Ch)
Autonomy v Lynch [2019] EWHC 249 (Ch)
Cape International Holdings v Dring [2019] UKSC 38
Global Assets v Grandlane Developments [2020] 1 WLR 128
Sheinberg v Abdon and others [2019] EWHC 3220 (Ch)
BXB v Watch Tower and Bible Tract Society of Pennsylvania [2020] EWHC
656 (QB)
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