Noel Clarke

Source: Jordan Pettit/PA Media

Noel Clarke

UK actor-filmmaker Noel Clarke has been ordered to pay at least £3m within 28 days towards the legal costs of Guardian News and Media (GNM), after a High Court ruling dismissed his libel case against the publisher last month.

The amount was determined by Justice Steyn at a hearing on Tuesday, September 23, according to PA News. 

”It seems to me that the sum of £3 million sought by the defendant is appropriate and no more than what ought to be reasonably ordered in this case,” said Steyn in her judgement.

“It is substantially lower than the defendant’s likely level of recovery on detailed assessment and so in my judgment, it does allow for a suitably wide margin of error.”

She continued: “The claimant maintained a far-fetched and indeed a false case that the articles were not substantially true, by pursuing allegations of dishonesty and bad faith against almost all of the defendant’s truth witnesses.”

GNM had been seeking £3m, which the publisher’s lawyer Gavin Millar said was less than half of the total legal costs of over £6m. Millar asked the court to order £3m as an interim payment, which he said was “significantly less” than the “norm” of asking for 75-80% of the costs.

Clarke represented himself at the costs hearing, and told the court he used ChatGPT to help prepare his response to Millar.

Clarke had noted in written submissions that his legal team had resigned after he had been unable to provide funding. He had also asked the court to hold payment of costs pending an appeal.

Clarke had sued GNM over seven articles and a podcast, including an April 2021 article that said 20 women who knew him professionally had come forward with allegations of misconduct, including harassment and sexually inappropriate behaviour.

Clarke denied the allegations. GNM defended its reporting as being true and in the public interest; Justice Steyn agreed in a judgement last month, in which she noted Clarke was “not a credible or reliable witness” during the trial in spring this year.

At the costs hearing, Millar said GNM’s defence case included review of 40,000 documents, including audio recordings and transcripts. He also pointed to “misconceived applications” made by Clarke which “required much work from the defendant’s lawyers in response.”

He also noted Clarke’s original request for £10m in damages, which increased to £40m then £70m as the case progressed.

“Although it is not necessary for GNM to show that Clarke’s unreasonable conduct increased its costs, in fact the conspiracy allegation inevitably massively increased the scale and costs of the litigation by giving rise to a whole new un-pleaded line of attack against witnesses and third parties,” said Millar in written submissions.

Clarke called on the court to restrict the amount he was required to pay in the context of his personal situation, and ”consider both the law and the human reality of these proceedings” when ordering costs. “I have lost my work, my savings, my legal team, my ability to support my family and much of my health,” said Clarke. “My wife and children live every day under the shadow of uncertainty. We remortgaged our home just to survive.

“Any costs or interim payments must be proportionate to my means as a single household, not the unlimited resources of a major media conglomerate. A crushing order would not just punish me, it would punish my children and wife, and they do not deserve that.”

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