The retail and hospitality sectors have urged Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan to tackle “vexatious defamation litigation being entertained” in the courts, saying they do not feel legally protected.
“The civil law system is actively conspiring to extort money from them in vexatious, unmeritorious litigation,” a letter to the Minister from Neil McDonnell, chief executive of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (Isme) said.
The correspondence, obtained under freedom-of-information legislation, followed a recent meeting between Mr McDonnell and Mr O’Callaghan during which current defamation reform was discussed.
The sector is specifically concerned about false claims against staff, including alleged shoplifting accusations.
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Isme believes spurious defamation proceedings brought against small businesses are an issue comparable to fake personal injury claims, and often requiring less effort.
Isme has estimated the cost of defamation actions to small businesses to fall between €30 million and €50 million annually, based on data from a single security firm. It believes there are also many undocumented payouts.
As with other stakeholders, including the media, the business lobby hopes to affect change during the passage of current legislation that would improve its position in legal disputes.
Legal reform has long been called for and the programme for government committed to restoring the Defamation Bill and to “make passing the legislation a priority”.
The association is seeking various changes, including the introduction of a “harm test” and other gatekeeper mechanisms that would restrict or temper such claims. Citing official data, Isme noted that defamation cases in Ireland currently outnumber those of the UK which has a similar legal system.
“When Ireland has the same number of defamation cases as a jurisdiction with a population 12 times greater, there is an undeniable systemic problem,” the letter stated.
Mr McDonnell said the argument of a person’s “access to justice” was moot among those in hospitality and retail “when those sectors identify both the criminal system as failing to protect them and the civil law system as actively conspiring to extort money from them in vexatious, unmeritorious litigation”.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr McDonnell said there were two types of theft in retail – actual theft and feigned theft where a person will attempt to look suspicious in order to attract an accusation.
“It’s more attractive [than fraudulent personal injury] in many ways and the reason why is it’s far faster,” Mr McDonnell said of the claims process.
