April 18, 2016

Having now considered section 12 of the Human Rights Act the Court of Appeal has discharged the interim injunction obtained by PJS against the publishers of the Sun on Sunday. Unsurprisingly, the conclusion was that it was now unlikely that the Claimant would obtain a permanent injunction at trial since it would not serve any useful purpose: Lord Justice Jackson said “the Court should not make orders which are ineffective.  It is in my view inappropriate (some may use a stronger term) for the Court to ban people from saying that which is common knowledge“.

However whilst PJS may now be named (and it would not be a contempt to do so) it is said that his right to privacy, although diminished, remains. Technically a claim for damages would exist, although it ought to be very limited given the extent to which the information is already in the public domain.