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Carter-Ruck is a British law firm founded by Peter Carter-Ruck. The firm specialises in libel, privacy,
international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
and commercial disputes. The leading legal directories (Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners) rank Carter-Ruck in the top tier of media, defamation and privacy lawyers in the UK.http://www.legal500.com/firms/2640-carter-ruck/93-london , Legal500.com. Accessed 13 March 2015. Carter-Ruck has been criticized for using intimidating and threatening tactics against journalists, government officials, and citizens to support the interests of their clients. In 2022, a U.S. Congressman from Tennessee recommended that six Carter-Ruck lawyers should be banned from entering the United States because of their ongoing work on behalf of Russian oligarchs.


Background

The firm was founded by Peter Carter-Ruck in 1982 after his former partners in Oswald Hickson told him to retire.


Notable clients and cases

Recent or current clients include the
State of Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
,
Cubby Broccoli Albert Romolo Broccoli ( ; April 5, 1909 – June 27, 1996), nicknamed "Cubby", was an American film producer who made more than 40 motion pictures throughout his career. Most of the films were made in the United Kingdom and often filmed at Pi ...
,
Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
, Rached Ghannouchi, Sir Elton John,
Simon Cowell Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of '' The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on ...
,
Yusuf Islam Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; ), commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and, later i ...
(formerly Cat Stevens),
Liam Gallagher William John Paul Gallagher (born 21 September 1972) is an English singer and songwriter. He achieved fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis from 1991 to 2009, and later fronted the rock band Beady Eye from 2009 to 2014, before starti ...
, Jude Law, Prince Radu of Romania,
Frank Bruno Franklin Roy Bruno, (born 16 November 1961) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1982 to 1996. He had a highly publicised and eventful career, both in and out of the ring. The pinnacle of Bruno's boxing career was winning ...
and Chelsea Football Club. The firm represents numerous MPs (including government ministers), MEPs and other political figures including a number of national governments and heads of state.


Russian oligarchs

Carter-Ruck acted for the Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky in a number of libel and other actions, including in the House of Lords against ''Forbes'' magazine, ''The Guardian'' and Russian broadcaster VGTRK. Carter-Ruck was involved in legal action against ''Financial Times'' journalist Catherine Belton and her publisher HarperCollins over her book '' Putin’s People''. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Carter-Ruck said it condemned the invasion and that the firm would not represent individuals associated with the Vladimir Putin regime.


Madeleine McCann

The firm has been involved in several libel cases related to the missing child
Madeleine McCann Madeleine Beth McCann (born 12 May 2003) is a British missing person who disappeared from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on the evening of 3 May 2007, at the age of 3. ''The Daily Telegraph'' described the disappeara ...
. Complaints were brought on behalf of the child's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, against the '' Daily Express'', the '' Daily Star'' and their sister Sunday newspapers over stories that suggested that the parents may have been involved in Madeleine's disappearance. The complaints led to the publication of unprecedented front-page apologies to Kate and Gerry McCann, in addition to a payment of £550,000 in damages, which was donated to the fund to find Madeleine. Carter-Ruck also advised the so-called 'Tapas Seven', the friends who were dining with the child's parents when she went missing. The complaints again led to the publication of an apology and a payment of £375,000 in damages, donated to the fundraising group Madeleine's Fund.


Church of Scientology

In late 2008, John Duignan, a former
Scientologist Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It has been variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement. The most recent published census data in ...
, published '' The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology'', a book critical of Scientology. Carter-Ruck, citing defamation laws, stopped
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
from publishing the book in Britain. In 2010, Carter-Ruck represented the Church of Scientology regarding 28 September 2010 broadcast on "Secrets of Scientology" aired by
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's '' Panorama'', claiming the journalist involved was biased. In 2016, Carter-Ruck were again found to be representing Scientology in the UK when they sent several letters to
Louis Theroux Louis Sebastian Theroux (; born 20 May 1970) is a British-American documentarian, journalist, broadcaster, and author. He has received two British Academy Television Awards and a Royal Television Society Television Award. After graduating fro ...
and his producers during the making of '' My Scientology Movie'' threatening, amongst other things, legal action and an injunction against its release. The film was released in 2015.


Trafigura

Carter-Ruck was instructed by commodities trader Trafigura over press coverage relating to the discharge of oil 'slops' from a Trafigura-chartered tanker in Ivory Coast in 2006. Libel proceedings were brought against the BBC in 2009 after a broadcast of the current affairs programme ''Newsnight'' suggested that Trafigura's actions caused a number of deaths, miscarriages and serious injuries. The BBC went on to broadcast an apology as the opening item on ''Newsnight''. The BBC also apologised in a Statement in Open Court. Corrections concerning Trafigura were also published by ''The Times'', ''The Independent'', and ''The Guardian''. In September 2009, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' reported that Carter-Ruck demanded it delete published articles relating to the Trafigura toxic oil disaster, saying it was "gravely defamatory" and "untrue" to say that Trafigura's waste had been dumped cheaply and could have caused deaths and serious injuries. ''The Guardian'' later reported that Trafigura agreed to pay compensation to 31,000 West African victims. ''The Guardian'' also alleged that other media outlets in the
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and
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
were also threatened with gagging orders. These turned out to be NRK in Norway, and '' De Volkskrant'' and Greenpeace in the Netherlands. In October 2009, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' published an article stating that it had been prevented from reporting on a parliamentary matter, being "forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret. The only fact ''The Guardian'' can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck." The paper further claimed that this case appears "to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688
Bill of Rights A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pr ...
". The question subject to the gagging order was from Paul Farrelly, MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme: The following day the firm agreed to discharge the order preventing the reporting of the events, which concerned Trafigura and a draft chemistry report into the oil slops incident in Ivory Coast. Trafigura maintained that the report was a superseded draft report which was legally privileged and confidential, and that it had been obtained illegally and passed to ''The Guardian''. According to a press release on Carter-Ruck's website, the reason that ''The Guardian'' could not report the question asked by Paul Farrelly was because a gagging order had been in place since 11 September 2009, before the MP asked the question. They also stated that it had never been their intention to prevent the press reporting on parliament and that they had since agreed on changes with ''The Guardian'' to the gagging order so that they could report on the issue. The firm also pointed out that ''The Guardian'' had in fact consented to the order preventing the newspaper from publishing any article about the chemistry report. Subsequently, lawyers advising the Speaker of the House of Commons are reported to have agreed with Carter-Ruck's interpretation that the injunction as initially granted did prevent the press from reporting the Parliamentary question. The Conservative MP
Peter Bottomley Sir Peter James Bottomley (born 30 July 1944) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1975 when elected for Woolwich West, serving until it was abolished before the 1983 general election. ...
reported the firm to the Law Society due to their actions which prevented ''The Guardian'' covering parliamentary proceedings, but the Law Society did not uphold any complaint.


Craig Ames and Robert McGee

In 2014, Carter-Ruck unsuccessfully sued cyber security company
Spamhaus The Spamhaus Project is an international organisation based in the Principality of Andorra, founded in 1998 by Steve Linford to track email spammers and spam-related activity. The name ''spamhaus'', a pseudo-German expression, was coined by Linf ...
on behalf of California-based entrepreneurs Craig Ames and Rob McGee, who were involved with a bulk email marketing services business, initially through a US corporation called Blackstar Media LLC, and latterly as employees of Blackstar Marketing, a subsidiary of the English company Adconion Media Group Limited, which bought Blackstar Media in April 2011. Although an initial motion by Spamhaus to strike out the claims failed, they ultimately prevailed when the claimants dropped their case and paid Spamhaus' legal costs.


OneCoin

In September 2016 Carter-Ruck threatened legal action against Andrew Penman's exposé of the purported cryptocurrency OneCoin. In May 2017, police and financial actions in several countries revealed that Carter-Ruck's client appears indeed to be a Ponzi scheme.


Labour Party

In July 2019 it was revealed that Carter-Ruck had written to Sam Matthews, the Labour Party's former head of disputes, warning he could face legal action for breaking his non-disclosure agreement for blowing the whistle on the party's handling of antisemitism allegations.


Criticism

Sir
Christopher Meyer Sir Christopher John Rome Meyer (22 February 1944 – 27 July 2022) was a British diplomat who served as the Ambassador to the United States (1997–2003), Ambassador to Germany (1997), and the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (20 ...
, former chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) said that the PCC was the firm's "sworn enemy" and accused the firm of using a Commons select committee hearing to attack the PCC. He suggested that Carter-Ruck and other media law firms probably saw the PCC as their enemy because "we can do the job for free and can provide a degree of discretion". Cameron Doley, then managing partner with Carter-Ruck, denied the accusations made against them. The firm is frequently referred to as 'Carter-Fuck' by the satirical magazine '' Private Eye''. Despite their antagonistic relationship, Carter-Ruck publicly sided with ''Private Eye'' when the magazine lost a £600,000 libel case in 1989 against
Sonia Sutcliffe Sonia Szurma-Woodward (née Oksana Szurma; born 10 August 1950), known as Sonia Sutcliffe, is the former wife of the British serial killer Peter Sutcliffe. Marriage to Sutcliffe Sonia married Peter William Sutcliffe on 10 August 1974, her 24th bi ...
, the wife of the
Yorkshire Ripper Peter William Sutcliffe (2 June 1946 – 13 November 2020) was an English serial killer who was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper (an allusion to Jack the Ripper) by the press. Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women and attempting t ...
. Founder Peter Carter-Ruck was subsequently invited to attend a ''Private Eye'' lunch, and soon afterwards he asked whether the magazine could stop misprinting the first letter of 'Ruck' as an 'F'. ''Private Eye''s response was to print the first letter of 'Carter' with an 'F' as well.


The Libel Reform Campaign

The Libel Reform Campaign cite many instances where the application of the libel laws by law firms like Carter-Ruck is effectively gagging the freedom of expression and free speech in England and Wales, leaving only the wealthy anywhere in the world able to seek justice in the UK where it would be denied in their own country (see
Libel tourism Libel tourism is a term, first coined by Geoffrey Robertson, to describe forum shopping for libel suits. It particularly refers to the practice of pursuing a case in England and Wales, in preference to other jurisdictions, such as the United State ...
). However, these criticisms have been challenged by leading media law academics Alastair Mullis and Andrew Scott. An example of Carter-Ruck acting on behalf of a client to stifle criticism was reported in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' newspaper on 19 January 2011. Carter-Ruck on behalf of Midland Pig Producers (MPP) issued a warning letter to the
Soil Association The Soil Association is a British registered charity. The organisation activities include campaigning – against intensive farming, for local purchasing and public education on nutrition – and certification of organic foods. It was establ ...
(SA) threatening libel proceedings after the SA objected to a MPP planning application. Threatening such proceedings, which are rarely followed through, is a typical modus operandi of Carter-Ruck (and other law firms) to minimise scrutiny of, and adverse publicity toward, their clients – a practice known as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, abbreviated SLAPP.


Competitors

Other firms involved in the same field as Carter-Ruck include Olswang and Reynolds Porter Chamberlain.


References


External links

* {{official website, http://www.carter-ruck.com/ Law firms of the United Kingdom Law firms established in 1982 1982 establishments in the United Kingdom