Judith Collins has kept her word; the Herald reports:
Justice Minister Judith Collins has initiated High Court defamation action against Trevor Mallard and Andrew Little but the two Labour MPs remain defiant, saying the case is unlikely to make it into the courthouse.Ms Collins in March said she would sue the two MPs and Radio New Zealand for comments they made during an interview on the state broadcaster which linked her to the leak of a sensitive email to her from former National Party president Michelle Boag.The High Court at Auckland yesterday confirmed proceedings against Mr Mallard and Mr Little had been filed on behalf of Ms Collins. However in a further sign Ms Collins has decided against suing Radio NZ, the broadcaster was not named in the papers.
Trevor Mallard is putting on a brave front:
Mr Mallard late yesterday confirmed he'd received a letter from Ms Collins' lawyers Morrison Kent informing him proceedings had been filed and asking him to co-operate in allowing papers to be served on him."I see no reason to co-operate in what is clearly a vexatious action."He did not believe a full court hearing on the matter would eventuate."A substantive trial is exceptionally unlikely.
Mr Mallard may be bullish now, but we would caution him to underestimate Judith Collins' resolve on this issue at his peril. Defending or initiating a legal action is costly, and Ms Collins must believe that she has a strong case.
2 comments:
It is worth reading and thinking about Little's response. Judith has perhaps boxed herself in here. If she has to defend her reputation in court, charges such as, "You shouted "pervert" at Benson-Pope in the House" will look terrible for her. That is just what will happen. I don't think this is going well for Judith.
Little said:
"Collins wouldn’t want the matter to go to trial, he said.
”I’m absolutely certain of that. A minister of the Crown standing in the witness box having to give evidence about her reputation and have things that may be contrary to her view of her own reputation, is not a savory experience for her.
”She’ll have all the things she has done in her political career that are contradictory to her claim that she is above and beyond reproach.”
Little said people had come forward to him unsolicited about her conduct as a lawyer in Auckland.
”Whether that sort of stuff gets put into a defamation court case, who knows, but she won’t want to go to trial and be under the spotlight.
”A defamation proceedings is about her reputation and about what Trevor and I have said, not about our reputation. She has more to lose than any of us if she goes to trial.”
Collins had dug herself a ”huge hole”, he said.
”She won’t stop digging. Her big problem is she announced in a press release back at the end of March that she was issuing proceedings against Trevor and me.
”It’s become apparent she took legal advice after she made that statement and she hasn’t found a way out of making that promise to herself so she had to file court proceedings.”
"Mr Mallard may be bullish now" - he seems like a plump waddling dinner-to-be if you ask me:
http://i1258.photobucket.com/albums/ii530/RightNow2012/mallard_duck_2.jpg
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