Judges in England to gain new powers in clampdown on abusive litigation

Judges in England and Wales are to be given greater powers to throw out lawsuits designed to intimidate critics of the super-rich into silence under legislation brought forward by the UK government.

A long-awaited crackdown on so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation (Slapps) — threats of expensive litigation to bully journalists, publishers and campaigners — is to become law through amendments to an economic crime bill going through parliament, the government announced on Tuesday.

However, the restrictions will only cover such tactics when they relate to economic crime, giving deep-pocketed individuals and companies scope to adopt them in other cases.

Justice secretary Alex Chalk KC said ministers were “stamping out the brazen abuse of our legal system that has allowed wealthy individuals to silence investigators who are trying to expose their wrongdoing”.

Free speech advocates have long complained that Russian oligarchs and other wealthy litigants have used the threat of action in the English courts to suppress criticism because their opponents face high legal costs, even if the case against them is weak.

Publishers can in such circumstances be persuaded either to settle claims that would otherwise be defensible or to avoid publishing critical coverage in the first place.

The UK government vowed last July to bring forward legislation to crack down on the practice, including an early “dismissal process” to throw out meritless cases.

Announcing the plans on Tuesday, the Ministry of Justice said the measures were only the “first step” in a broader crackdown on Slapps and that the government would set out further legislation covering areas beyond economic crime “when parliamentary time allows”.

Research from the Foreign Policy Centre think-tank cited by the MoJ estimated that “up to 70 per cent” of all Slapps relate to economic crime.

Under the new framework, judges will be asked to assess whether a case meets a definition of an “economic crime Slapp”, and if so whether the claim has a “reasonable chance” of success.

The MoJ said the aim was to “put the onus on the complainants to prove that their case has merit, rather than on the defendant”.

The government also said it would introduce cost limits on Slapp litigation to prevent them from being “financially ruinous”. The limits are to be determined by a committee of legal experts.