Adjudication No. 1233 (March 2004) [2004] APC 8

Adjudication No. 1233 (March 2004)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint by the Civil Justice Foundation against The Sunday Mail, Brisbane, about an opinion article criticising a growing trend towards civil litigation in public liability matters.

The article (Where will the children play?) pointed to a number of actual and hypothetical examples of this trend which, in the writer's view, undermined normal social life and community relations.

Among these examples, the paper cited a "delightful yarn doing the rounds" about a man who successfully sued a car manufacturer for not explaining to him the limitations of the cruise control function on his new motor home. The man, it was said, had crashed his vehicle after he had set the cruise control thinking it would take over the steering, and left the wheel to make himself some coffee.

The Civil Justice Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation which says its goals are to promote and encourage the protection and enhancement of the rights of the individual by way of access to the civil courts. The Foundation said that the motor home "yarn" was "unsourced, and regrettably, untruthful". It considered that the reference not only misled readers, but that it had the effect of "goading disparagement of consumers who are injured through no fault of their own". It sought a correction.

The paper rejected the Foundation's interpretation of the article. "Readers", it said, "aren't stupid", and no reasonable person would have viewed the writer's comments as inviting criticism of consumers who seek legal redress for reckless injury caused to them.

The Press Council agrees broadly with The Sunday Mail. The description of the alleged motor home incident as a "yarn" introduced a clear element of doubt about its veracity. And while the article did, in fact, imply criticism of some litigants, its focus was plainly not on individuals with a genuine grievance, but on vexatious, far-fetched, or fatuous law suits, and on "the legal fraternity and the insurance giants" which generate them.

The Foundation wrote to The Sunday Mail to protest, but its letter was marked "not for publication" - possibly because the complaint was lodged well over two months after the article appeared. The Press Council believes a timely, publishable letter to the editor would have been a more appropriate avenue for the Foundation to pursue its concerns.