Reports of this kind seem fairly commonplace in today’s media:

Model Matt Peacock yesterday accepted £15,000 in damages from the Sunday Mirror over an article that claimed he was violent towards his ex-wife, Jodie Marsh.

The piece, which appeared in its Celebs on Sunday magazine on 13 April last year, claimed the couple’s relationship ended soon afterwards as a result of his violence.

It’s just your bog standard ‘newspaper prints minor celeb gossip and gets nailed for inconsequential sum in damages’ that seems to crop up every few weeks with banal regularity.

The Mirror, of course, also had to pick up the tab for costs, the exact figure for which is rarely disclosed… unless Private Eye get in on the act.

According to sources on Twitter, this week’s copy of the Eye reveals that he got £15,000 in damages after being wrongly accused of being a wife-beater, a law firm who’s name we all know very well – Carter Ruck – got £380,000 in legal costs out of this one case.

Difficult as it is to have much sympathy for the Mirror here, there is something desperately wrong with a system in which the lawyers are making just over 25 times as much out of a lawsuit than the injured party.

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   Libel costs Mirror £15k damages, £380k in costs http://bit.ly/b2u2k4

2. Patrick Gower

   RT @libcon: Libel costs Mirror £15k damages, £380k in costs http://bit.ly/b2u2k4

3. Douglas Gresham

   Follow-up on my libel post yesterday – Mirror case supposedly cost 15k for the award and 380k in fees http://bit.ly/asNPgz

4. Douglas Gresham

   Follow-up on my libel post yesterday – Mirror case supposedly cost 15k for the award and 380k in fees http://bit.ly/asNPgz

5. Chris Coltrane

   It's hard to sympathise with tabloids. Still, this is a perfect example of why libel reform is vital http://bit.ly/dBGfRI

6. Dez

   RT@chris_coltrane It's hard to sympathise with tabloids. Still, this is a perfect example of why libel reform is vital http://bit.ly/dBGfRI

7. George Allwell

   Liberal Conspiracy » Libel costs Mirror £15k damages, £380k in costs http://bit.ly/b2u2k4

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