Legal actions in practice
10.4.1 Legal actions in practice
Ignorance of or disregard for the law will inevitably lead to an experience which is universally regarded as one of life’s little lowlights – a meeting with
a lawyer. Lawyers may emerge from the in-house legal department, or they may be summoned from the pages of a legal directory (if the needy party wants to ensure an appropriate specialist) or a business directory. They may
be solicitors, barristers, legal executives, or even para-legals. Your briefing should then prompt the next stage in the process – the giving of legal advice.
If the matter is so far only a proposed course of action, such advice will usually concentrate on the possibilities of whether it is actionable and/or criminal. The responsibility for the decision as to whether to go ahead, given the risks of prosecution or other legal action, will be the relevant manager’s (who could be you).
However, if the legal problem is one that already exists as a result of action or inaction on the part of you or your staff, the legal advice will concentrate on what the next move should be. The advice may be to do nothing and hope that no-one finds out. However, if the problem is one of civil law, the next step is usually to attempt to settle the dispute through an exchange of correspondence. This may be followed by the settlement of the problem without resort to law (the cheap and preferred option). Only when such attempts are unsuccessful or one party wishes to adopt a tougher stance is it usual to try and obtain satisfaction through the issuing of a claim. Bear in mind that limitation periods mean that legal claims must be made within the specified time limits or be lost, with only a possibility of being revived. For example, you must bring a libel action within 1 year of first publication, and
a personal injury action within 3 years of knowledge of the potential action.
Managing in the Media
From the issuing of such claims, there is a set timetable regarding responses and counter-responses, the gathering of evidence and the passing of it to the other side, and the readying of the case for trial. Such a timetable can impose obligations to act, which must be observed. For example, if you receive either a County Court or a High Court claim form, you should reply within 14 days or you may find that judgement has been entered against you. However, such a timetable can always be terminated by settlement of the case prior to the accumulation of exorbitant legal fees.
If the problem is a matter of criminal law, possible advice might include one’s rights in the face of investigations (such as whether the police have the right to seize footage to be used as evidence) and the preparation of a defence in the event of a decision by the authorities to prosecute.
Decisions taken based on such advice can be entirely pragmatic. For example, the publication of security-sensitive information may without question be an offence under the Official Secrets Act, but it may be felt that the attendant publicity and the nature of the public’s interest in publication would make any prosecution, except of the discloser, very unlikely (this was so in both the Clive Ponting and Sarah Tisdall cases). However, the publication of perfectly true information about a public figure may be decided against because of the threat of a libel action that would involve great expense and/or might expose an informant to retaliation.