Edwin Coe wins again in Supreme Court ruling

Edwin Coe notches up its second significant win in the Supreme Court this year. The law firm that acted for the Claimant in the Article 50 litigation records a second significant win in the Flood litigation with Times Newspapers on which the Supreme Court ruled today.

Nick Neocleous, Edwin Coe partner, has been acting for Gary Flood throughout this case. He comments: “It has been a long and bumpy road, with two trips to the Court of Appeal, two to the Supreme Court and numerous other hearings. It is not a case for the faint-hearted.”

Acting for police officer, Gary Flood, Edwin Coe brought a case for defamation against The Times newspaper after an article was published in The Times and on The Times website suggesting that there were strong grounds to believe that Mr Flood had been guilty of corruption for taking bribes from Russian exiles. The matter was complicated by the fact that the printed article in question was kept on the paper’s website in an electronic form after DS Flood had been exonerated by a police investigation. Gary Flood was awarded substantial damages for the website publications as well as all his costs in December 2013. The Times appealed the cost order and their appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in December 2014.

The Times then appealed to the Supreme Court in connection with the cost order and against the order requiring it to pay success fees and the insurance premium. It argued that payment of the success fees and insurance premium violated its rights under the Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights. However, today the Court found in favour of Gary Flood. This matter started in 2006 with the initial publication by The Times, and Edwin Coe is delighted with the ruling for its client.

David Greene, Head of Litigation and Senior Partner, and who acted in the Article 50 litigation said: “It has been good to be involved in two of the most significant cases before the Supreme Court this year. As I was coming out of the Article 50 judgment, my partner Nick was going in to the same court for the Flood appeals. These cases do not come along each day but the Edwin Coe team continue to be at the forefront of litigation in London.”