L3 Text: Flood (Respondent) v Times Newspapers Limited (Appellant)

Flood (Respondent) v Times Newspapers Limited (Appellant) [2012] UKSC 11

The matter at hand is a case of libel involving the publisher of The Times and Detective Sergeant Flood working with the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Extradition Unit.

In response to allegations by the publisher of The Times (in an article) that he may have taken advantage of his position as Detective Sergeant to disclose confidential extradition information to a security firm (a third party) in exchange for money, the (aforementioned) Police Officer (i.e. the claimant) brought / issued a claim for libel (against the journalist, i.e. the respondent).

- to bring a claim

- to issue a claim

At first instance the High Court (in all likelihood the Queen’s Bench Division) found that the journalist was justified in publishing his article pursuant to the Reynolds privilege which protects journalists whenever the public interest is at stake.

The Police Officer appealed the High Court’s decision to the Court of Appeal, which reversed the High Court’s finding.

In turn, the Journalist (being at this stage of the procedure “the appellant”) petitioned the Supreme Court which unanimously allowed the appeal.

Holding that the journalist was indeed allowed to base his defence on the Reynolds privilege (/to resort to the Reynolds privilege for his defence), reversed the Court of Appeal’s decision.

Preliminary issue (preliminary point of law): In civil proceedings, a preliminary issue  is an issue ordered to be tried before the main trial of the case. An order for the trial of a preliminary issue may be made by the court if the preliminary issue (which may be a question of law) will be decisive or potentially decisive in the case. (Under Part 3 of the Civil Procedure Rules the court has the power to dismiss or give judgement on a claim after a decision on a preliminary issue.)