In a recent post, I discussed newspaper reports of a recent High Court case in which Quinn Insurance Group lost a High Court bid to strike out parts of the Sunday Tribune’s defence to forthcoming libel proceedings taken against it by the insurance company; and I promised to return to the case as soon as a full report of the judgment became available online. I can now make good on that promise, as the judgment is available here and here. It turned on the question of how much detail must be pleaded before trial by a defendant claiming that an alleged defamation was either true or covered by qualified privilege.

Relying on an internal and confidential Garda (police) memorandum, the Sunday Tribune alleged that senior Gardaí had been recruited by Quinn to investigate insurance claims being made against it, and that the Gardaí not only relayed detailed information to Quinn, but also offered bonuses or sweetners to solicitors on behalf of plaintiffs to recommend early settlements in cases or claims against Quinn. The paper characterised this as “a scandalous subversion of garda independence” and resources. The Quinn Group disputed the authenticity of the memorandum and sued for libel; the paper defended the memorandum and pleaded justification (in effect, that allegations were true), or alternatively that the disclosures were in the public interest and thus protected by qualified privilege.…

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