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09 June 2011 / Jennifer James
Issue: 7469 / Categories: Blogs , Media
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Monkey business

Jennifer James grapples with a transatlantic tweeting sensation, Mr Monkey & the Fourth Estate

The recent controversy about super-injunctions raises some intriguing questions, not least whether Ryan Giggs now believes he had good advice and good value for his litigation spend with Schillings; I’m guessing in the region of £250,000, and rising fast.

The story he was trying to stifle is even news stateside where they see football, sorry, soccer, as a girls’ game.

Why this transatlantic interest? Well, Giggs’s lawyers applied to obtain information from Twitter, based in California, concerning what they call “the unlawful use of Twitter by a small number of individuals who may have breached a court order.” With thousands Tweeting about Giggs, this reference to a “small number” suggests that Schillings wish to target particular users. If press insiders with actual knowledge of Giggs’s injunction used anonymous Twitter accounts to “out” him, or if individuals fixed with actual knowledge that CTB and Ryan Giggs were one Tweeted to that effect, they would, of course, be in contempt of court, and in breach of the injunction. As the latter sounds in

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Jurit LLP—Caroline Williams

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Firm appoints head of intellectual property to drive northern growth

NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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