Friday, February 07, 2014

Rutland County Council, Funding defamation proceedings UKIP Councillor Richardson

Councillor Richardson wrote the following:

The following article appeared in the Times today:

“A Council’s decision to pay for its Chief Executive to sue a local blogger for libel was “unlawful”, according to a rare intervention from the Welsh Audit Office, published today.

Carmarthenshire Council has paid more than £26,000 in legal costs since 2012 after indemnifying its Chief Executive, Mark James, in a libel battle with the blogger, Jacqui Thompson.

The auditor’s public interest report reveals that the Council was warned by its own legal counsel that “common sense should warn all but the most litigious authorities from funding defamation proceedings”

It is time the electorate of Rutland started asking for their money back, given Rutland spent in excess of £46,000 in the case against ourselves.

That is on top of in excess of £200,000 being spent in the “harassment and stalking” case taken against a local blogger which was thrown out by the Judge.