There is no comprehensive public record of judgments handed down in the Kings Bench Division, Media and Communications List (“MAC List”) in 2023.  The best available data appears to be from the invaluable Bailii website which lists 61 MAC List first instance judgments for 2023.   This is a fuller list than Westlaw – which has 50 judgments, and the National Archives (Findlaw) which has 45.

The Bailii list is, inevitably, incomplete – not all judgments are provided to it and ex tempore judgments will often not be transcribed.  There is no public record of the (often detailed) reasoned directions orders regularly made by Mr Justice Nicklin, the Judge in Charge of the List until 21 December 2023.

Of the 61 judgments listed by Bailii, 28 were in cases in which defamation was the sole cause of action.  There were 3 judgments in harassment cases and 2 in misuse of private information cases.  The judgments also included 10 cases where several causes of action were relied on – often  defamation and harassment or misuse of private information and data protection.  There were two judgments on Norwich Pharmacal applications.

There were seven judgments handed down after full trials, only one of which concerned a claim against a mainstream media organisation: Dyson v MGN; Miller v Turner; Crobsie v Ley; Aaronson v Stones; LCG v OVD; Bekoe v Islington; Packham v Wightman and  Hay v Cresswell.  In addition, there were 13 judgments after trials of preliminary issues in defamation cases.

The judgments were given by 21 different Judges as follows

7 judgments – Collins Rice J

6 judgments – Nicklin J

5 judgments – Steyn J

4 judgments – Johnson J, Heather Williams J and HHJ Lewis

3 judgments – Julian Knowles J, Pepperall J, Murray J and Farbey J

2 judgments – Hill J, Linden J, Saini J, Tipples J and Deputy Judge Allegre

1 judgment – Chamberlain J, Griffiths J, Kerr J, Ritchie J, Lavender J, Jay J.

The number of new issued cases has remained relatively stable over the past 2 years.  There were a total of 214 new cases issued in the MAC List in 2023 – a similar figure to 2022 (202).  There were 112 defamation claims (2022 – 130) and only 22 data protection claims (2022 – 21).  We will publish a full analysis of the issued cases in the New Year.