A Disproportionate Response

The long awaited decision in the case of BNM v Mirror Group Newspapers will be awaited a little while longer! 

​The hearing of the appeal took place on 11 October before Sir Terence Etherton (the Master of the Rolls), LJ Longmore and LJ Irwin. 

​Alexander Hutton QC and Jamie Carpenter represented MGN and Simon Browne QC and James Laughland represented BNM. 

​Reference was made during the hearing to a number of other appeal hearings that the Court of Appeal are due to hear. 

​The cases of Reynolds v Nottingham University Hospitals Foundation Trust, McMenemy v Peterborough & Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, West v Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and Demouilpied v Stockport NHS Foundation Trust are all due to be heard in the Court of Appeal and the Master of the Rolls appeared keen that the facts of all these cases be considered before the judgment be handed down. 

​David Bowden, a journalist who attended the hearing, reported that the judgment was reserved and was unlikely to be handed down until after the hearings of Reynolds and McMenemy (both were listed to be heard on 17 or 18 October). 

​It is to be hoped that the judgment is handed down swiftly, as there are numerous cases around the country that have been stayed pending the decision in this case. It is farcical that it has taken this long for the issue to come before the Court of Appeal. 

​Hopefully practitioners will not have too much longer to wait!