"Wholly improper" private prosecution results in huge costs award

Adrian Darbishire QC, instructed by Michael O’Kane of Peters & Peters, represented former Gibson Dunn partner Peter Gray in a private prosecution dismissed by the Magistrates' Court in June. 

The defence had resisted the application for summonses on the basis that the proceedings were an abuse of the process of the Court. The District Judge agreed, commenting that “it was wholly improper to launch these proceedings.” Unusually, he also ordered the prosecutor to pay the full costs incurred by the defendants (over £220,000), on the basis that they had resulted from the "improper act" of instituting the proceedings.

See The Lawyer.

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