A Rare Breed - Libel Injunctions

Recent cases show when you may get an interim injunction to restrain publication of defamatory material

Cases involving claimants successfully obtaining an interim injunction for libel are always of interest – they almost never happen. In September 2010, a solicitor who has been the subject of allegedly defamatory postings on a website called Solicitors From Hell bucked the trend and successfully obtained her injunction.

Interim libel injunctions are rare because of the rule in the old case of Bonnard v. Perryman (1891) 2 Ch 269: interim injunctions should not be granted in defamation cases where the defendants indicate an intention to prove the truth of what they publish or transmit, i.e. raise a defence of justification.

s.12(3) Human Rights Act 1998 also affects the approach of the court: it provides that no relief affecting the exercise of the Convention right to freedom of expression is "to be granted so as to restrain publication before trial unless the court is satisfied that the applicant is likely to establish that publication should not be allowed." The Act also directs in s.12(4) that "the court...