Judge criticises commentator after action against Cosgrave adjourned
JOHN MCGUIRK: TAKING DEFAMATION ACTION AGAINST WEB SUMMIT FOUNDER
FIACHRA GALLAGHERA High Court judge has sharply criticised conservative commentator John McGuirk after his lawyers sought an 11th-hour adjournment of his defamation action against Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave.
Judge Tony O’Connor, who described the situation as a “travesty”, agreed to adjourn the action yesterday, but ordered that McGuirk pay certain legal costs incurred before a new hearing date is fixed.
McGuirk’s action, in which he alleges he was defamed by posts made by Cosgrave on X – then Twitter – in 2021, was due to begin yesterday before a judge and a jury.
O’Connor said McGuirk could not “hide behind” comments made by his senior counsel, who told the judge that two junior lawyers representing McGuirk had last week agreed to the trial going ahead yesterday, in circumstances where this consent should not have been given.
The judge said McGuirk was responsible for the situation, and said he would not tolerate the integrity of the junior lawyers “being impugned in this court”. The judge also noted how about 100 potential jurors, summonsed by the court in advance of a jury empanelling in the case, had been “inconvenienced tremendously” by the circumstances.
McGuirk was not present in court. Cosgrave was present.
McGuirk’s senior counsel Maura McNally told the judge that a junior solicitor and junior barrister last week appeared before the court and agreed to the case proceeding to trial that day. McNally said this consent should not have been given, as the McGuirk side was then still awaiting a report from a San Francisco-based expert. McNally said her instructing firm’s principal solicitor had not been notified that consent was given for the hearing date. McNally said she had not met her client in months, and had not reviewed papers in the case since January. Counsel said she was seeking the adjournment as she was not in a position to proceed with the trial. McNally likened the trial proceeding to “being asked to go into a boxing ring with both hands tied behind my back”.
Barrister Tom Hogan, appearing for Cosgrave, opposed the adjournment, submitting that he couldn’t overstate “how extraordinary this state of affairs is”. He said Cosgrave was in court and prepared for the trial.
Responding to the judge’s invitation for counsel’s views on the making of a legal costs order against McGuirk, McNally said such an order should not be so onerous to preclude McGuirk from pursuing his case. The judge ordered that McGuirk pay legal costs incurred by the parties in the wasting of yesterday’s hearing date and other costs incurred.
