Three hearings in protracted legal battle

There were three hearings before three different judges and juries in Mr Proinsias De Rossa's protracted legal battle with Independent Newspapers. The first began in the High Court in Dublin on November 5th last year before Mr Justice McCracken. At the time, Mr De Rossa was Minister for Social Welfare in the Rainbow Coalition.

On November 19th, the judge discharged the jury, following an article on the hearing in the Sunday Independent. He said he would say simply that there were certain newspaper articles, or a newspaper article, published over the previous weekend which he felt could have an influence on the jury and should not have been published. He said he was sorry the jury had had eight days in court, but there was little he could do about it. He awarded Mr De Rossa all legal costs and expenses incurred since the beginning of the hearing as well as all outlay incurred in the three weeks before it started and 50 per cent of solicitors' instruction fees. The next hearing got underway on February 26th last before Mr Justice Moriarty and lasted 14 days. After deliberating for nine hours over two days, the jury failed to reach agreement and was discharged. Mr De Rossa made it clear that he intended continuing with his action until a conclusion was reached. The third hearing was supposed to start on July 3rd before Mr Justice Carney, but was postponed when he agreed to an application from Independent Newspapers that he travel to Moscow to take evidence from witnesses there.

It finally got underway in the High Court on July 15th and ended yesterday with victory for Mr De Rossa.