Man avoids jail after material about barrister removed from website

A man allegedly involved with a controversial website which invites people to "rate" their lawyers avoided a four-month jail sentence yesterday after the High Court was told that material about a Dublin barrister had been removed from the site.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, had warned John Gill that he would be jailed from 2pm yesterday for four months unless the material about Dublin barrister Jayne Maguire was removed in compliance with court orders made earlier this month.

Also yesterday, Mr Justice Finnegan said that if Charles Farrell apologised for a comment made earlier this week during a hearing involving Mr Gill, then the judge would "revisit" the imposition of a €10,000 fine on Mr Farrell for a remark he made in court.

Mr Farrell was not in court for yesterday's hearing and the judge was told he was unwell.

After being told comments relating to Ms Maguire had been removed, the judge adjourned the proceedings brought by the barrister against Mr Gill, of Drumline, Newmarket on Fergus, Co Clare.

Ms Maguire alleges Mr Gill had posted defamatory statements about her "of the most offensive and damaging nature both personally and professionally" on the site www.rateyoursolicitor.com.

Mr Gill denies any involvement with the website. He has alleged that Ms Maguire had told him a colleague had posted the material complained of.

On November 3rd last, the High Court ordered that all material referring to Ms Maguire be removed from the website. The court was told this material included warnings to Ms Maguire against continuing with her legal action.

On Monday last, the judge was told material about Ms Maguire remained on the site and he gave Mr Gill until yesterday to ensure this was removed or he would be jailed. Mr Gill said he would make every effort to ensure the material was removed.

Yesterday, Mark Harty, for Ms Maguire, said Mr Gill had sworn another affidavit, and a further affidavit, by a Ms Ryan, had been sworn on behalf of Ms Maguire. There had been editing of comments about Ms Maguire but, his side contended, this editing was insufficient.

Pressed by the judge, counsel said all comments had been removed except an "avoid" rating.

Mr Justice Finnegan said he was not concerned with the avoid rating. On the basis that the comments had been removed, he said he would adjourn the proceedings.

The judge then inquired whether Mr Farrell was in court and was told by Mr Gill that he was unwell.

The judge said he had imposed the €10,000 fine on Mr Farrell because of the need to maintain proper order in court. It was up to Mr Farrell to purge his contempt and apologise, he said. If Mr Farrell did apologise, the judge said he would revisit the fine issue and would meanwhile hold over the final order relating to the fine.

The fine was imposed over an incident which occurred last Monday immediately after Mr Justice Finnegan said he would jail Mr Gill. A person in court snorted, in apparent derision of the judge's ruling. When Mr Justice Finnegan asked who made the noise, Mr Farrell, who was among some 20 supporters of Mr Gill in court, replied: "The cat."

Mr Justice Finnegan ordered Mr Farrell to come to the bench and asked him his name and address.

Asked by the judge whether he would apologise, Mr Farrell asked: "For what?" The judge asked: "Where's the cat?" He said he proposed fining Mr Farrell €10,000 for contempt and directed him to leave the court.

Mr Farrell responded: "Is this a public building?" and asked what authority the judge had. The judge asked him if he proposed leaving. Mr Farrell said he would leave and then walked out of the courtroom.