This week I announced a change in the law to stop oligarchs using British courts to bully critics into silence.
Under my plans, judges will be given greater powers to dismiss lawsuits designed purely to evade scrutiny and stifle freedom of speech.
These legal cases, referred to as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), are aggressively used by very wealthy individuals and big corporations to intimidate and financially exhaust opponents, threatening them with extreme costs for defending a claim.
Masquerading as genuine cases under our world-renowned privacy and defamation laws, SLAPPs bully critics into silence so that claimants can evade scrutiny by targeting those who can’t match their financial firepower – like sharks against minnows.
Facing endless lawsuits and eye-watering legal costs, journalists and campaigners pull the plug on investigations and stories, too afraid to speak out. It leaves corruption hidden and the British public in the dark.
SLAPPs have been used prominently by oligarchs with links to Vladimir Putin. A recent example included a defamation case settled by HarperCollins and author Catherine Belton with Roman Abramovich, after her book Putin’s People suggested that he purchased Chelsea FC at the Russian president’s command.
As well as bringing a swift end to the vast majority of SLAPPs cases, I am also planning restrictions to cap the costs that journalists or publishers might have to pay in order to prevent them from being financially ruined by legal action from billionaires.
Our courts should be used in the pursuit of justice – not to serve the ends of the crooked and corrupt. As Lord Chancellor and with my responsibility to respect the rule of law, I am determined to put a stop to this brazen abuse of our system.
I am delighted that Gloucestershire journalists from the Echo to the Cheltenham Post will recover their freedoms to report without fear or favour.
[Column published in the Cheltenham Post]