Jock Anderson

Latest news from Ireland is that Judge Michael Hanna has disqualified himself from the controversial Village Bicycle affair. (See earlier CaseLoad stories)

The Internet defamation action, which has wide ramifications for global online chat, is now in the hands of the President of the Irish High Court Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan and returns to court in Dublin on November 3.

For those who don’t know the story, or have not kept up with CaseLoad’s coverage (Find it yourself on www.caseload.co.nz) it goes like this:

On September 1, what is described as “a lewd comment” was left on www.Rate-Your-Solicitor.com about a Dublin barrister Jayne Maguire.

Rate Your Solicitor is a highly inflammatory web site service set up in March 2005 by the Victims of the Legal Profession Society which enables anyone to rate named solicitors on a scale of good to poor including “avoid.”

The site is hugely popular, clocking many thousands of visitors, hundreds of often blunt comments, and has Irish lawyers in a turmoil. It operates in association with www.crookedlawyer.com.

The comment in question, to which Ms Maguire took exception, was posted by a male lawyer who referred to her as the “village bicycle.”

Ms Maguire telephoned John Gill, one of the people behind Victims of the Legal Profession, to ask him to remove the comment.

When Mr Gill claimed he had no control over the website – which is hosted by Arizona internet service provider (ISP) Godaddy.com - Ms Maguire issued defamation proceedings against Mr Gill, who was told he may go to jail if he did not have the offensive material removed in accordance with a High Court injunction made by Justice Michael Hanna.

The comment was removed on October 4. Godaddy.com had earlier suspended access to Rate Your Solicitor but it is now available.

Ms Maguire’s action is the opening salvo against online libel in the Irish courts and is expected to have international implications.

High Court President Mr Justice Finnegan took over the case after Justice Hanna said he should disqualify himself because he personally knew a solicitor and barrister referred to in legal documents related to the case.

Justice Hanna made his decision to withdraw after reading an affidavit from John Gill which referred to a number of people working in the legal professions.

The judge said he had knowledge of two of those mentioned, the first being a solicitor who was in college with him, although he had not spoken to that person in 30 years. The second person, a barrister, was a friend and former pupil of his.

For his part John Gill continues to deny any involvement with the Rate Your Solicitor website or what appears on it.

CaseLoad will keep you posted.