The defamation game – stopping the abuse of Britain’s libel laws

Civil society faces continuing threats from the rich and powerful who want to suppress criticism. Money has many weapons, including the law of defamation, which can land critics, even those who expose wrongdoing, with punishing damages and ruinous costs. 

Good Law Project wants to protect the space to criticise power. To help us, we have hired a highly regarded defamation lawyer, Matthew Gill.

He will work helping campaigners and non-profits who are threatened by those they challenge. He can advise how to reduce legal risk when bringing to light that which power wants to keep hidden. And he can represent those who are being sued to deter or suppress scrutiny. We can make Matthew’s services available to those who share our vision of a better world on a need-blind, pay-what-you-can basis.

We also think there is an opportunity to turn the tables on those who abuse their wealth and power to punch down.

In the 1990s, McDonald’s brought a libel claim against two environmental activists. They had no money to pay lawyers – or to meet the firm’s costs or damages if they lost – but, with help from specialist defamation lawyers, they ran a case that exposed significant problems in the company’s supply chain and caused McDonald’s enormous reputational damage. 

If you have no assets, if going bankrupt doesn’t frighten you, you have a chance to turn your weakness into strength – to interrogate abuses of power, to force it to respond to your criticisms in court. 

If you are punching up, or defending those without power, and you get a libel letter, we’d love to hear from you. We won’t always be able to help. But where we can’t it won’t be because of money. If you are brave enough to challenge power you deserve proper legal support and we want to help. 

You can contact us on legal@goodlawproject.org.