High Court Warning To Applicants Seeking To Derogate From Open Justice

The recent High Court ruling in G and G v Wikimedia Foundation Inc [2009] serves as a warning to any applicants for interim injunctions who may seek to rely on derogations from the open justice principle. Mr Justice Tugendhat held that any derogations must be ordered only when it is "necessary and proportionate" to do so and where the order is "limited in scope" to what is required in the particular circumstances of the case.

In this case, the judge refused to grant parts of the order sought, for which the applicants failed to provide adequate supporting evidence.

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Full Article

The recent High Court ruling in G and G v Wikimedia Foundation Inc [2009] serves as a warning to any applicants for interim injunctions who may seek to rely on derogations from the open justice principle. Mr Justice Tugendhat held that any derogations must be ordered only when it is "necessary and proportionate" to do so and where the order is "limited in scope" to what is required in the particular circumstances of the case.

In this case, the judge refused to grant parts of the order sought, for which the applicants failed to provide adequate supporting evidence.

Background

The case of G and G v Wikimedia concerned an application to the High Court for a Norwich Pharmacal order against Wikimedia Foundation Inc, the Florida based organisation which runs online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia. The purpose of a Norwich Pharmacal order is to compel a third party who is not alleged to be a wrongdoer, but is...