Results 2,301-2,320 of 6,389 for speaker:James Lawless
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: That does not necessarily answer the question. What does SLAPP stand for then? It is an acronym.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: Is the term "public participation" intended to mean the articulation of a particular view, perhaps a political view or a questioning of authority?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: It is public participation, something that has been said. If I take a jar of pickles off the shelf in my local Spar store, the manager calls out "Stop, thief" and I sue him stating I will throw in a claim for €1 million, that is obviously not a SLAPP. Must it be a public pronouncement, usually or possibly political, or a journalist either questioning of authority or something of that...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: Politicians and public representatives
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: One of the hallmarks to which Ms Mhainín referred is where the individual is sued as well as the organisation. That would definitely have a more chilling effect, so I imagine it would be a SLAPP. I note Dr. Foley had indicated but, in the interests of time and in fairness to every speaker, I will move on to the next round of questions. Perhaps Dr. Foley will have an opportunity to...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: Dr. Foley wanted to get in. Does he want to reply to that question?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: I was asking if he wanted to reply to the Senator.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: Please do not.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: The clock is out but I am going to take a few others who have particular responses to Senator Ruane's comments. On the halfway house idea, I believe there are a couple of halfway houses emerging from this debate. One is the halfway house in which there is not an automatic right to a jury trial. Ms Ní Mhainín mentioned that this right was done away with in England and Wales. Mr....
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: It is an alternative because, at the moment, juries decide both whether a person has been defamed and what award he or she should get. This is only a proposal being floated for the purposes of these deliberations but the change would be that the jury would determine whether defamation had occurred and its role would end there. The judge would then decide what award is appropriate in terms...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: To tease this out, the reason it is being posited is that the commentary has consistently been that juries are unpredictable, inconsistent and irrational. These things have been suggested. If that is the case, a compromise proposal would be to take the function of awarding damages away from the jury and give it to a legal expert, the judge, while retaining a jury of a person's peers to...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: I am sure Mr. Kealey will agree, as he mentioned it in his submission, that it is a non-starter for people who are very poor but many lawyers will engage on a no foal, no fee basis. What can happen sometimes is that people will run a case despite having very limited resources because the lawyers will say that if they win, they will take their fees but if they do not win, they will not taken...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: I thank Mr. Foley. I am just conscious of time.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: I will allow a couple of more minutes and we will have the second round then. I am going to put a point to Dr. Foley myself before I let Deputy Farrell back in if that is okay.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: I will let them do that, but first I want to put a point to Dr. Foley in response to something he said, and then I will take whoever else wants to speak. I remind members that after Deputy Farrell's engagement we will come to the end of the first round. I have had a couple of indications from speakers who want to come in on the second round already. I remind members that there is other...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: It probably was not prior to defamation. Anyway, that is fine. It is very useful to have real-world examples. I appreciate people being candid with us about their experiences.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: I thank all of the witnesses. I will move on and hand the baton over to the next speaker. I will bring in Senator Martin.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: The public participation definition is key.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Jul 2023)
James Lawless: I thank the witnesses and Deputy Farrell for those questions. We are going to move to our second round of questions. There are three minutes per member. I will police it a lot more strictly than I did in the first round because the first round was very illustrative and very helpful and we got a good thrust going, but I am mindful of time and I know that the witnesses have been with us for...