Misleading conduct

Michael Douglas and others v Hello! Ltd and others [2004] EWHC 63 (Ch)

The three claimants had each succeeded in their claims under the law of confidence. An award that simply looked at the number of issues won and lost would not fairly reflect the realities of the case. Whilst they lost a good many issues, it was not unreasonable, particularly in light of the first three defendants’ misleading conduct, for the claimants to have raised the issues that they did. Overall the claimants were winners of the liability hearing. If an award were to be made issue by issue, there would undoubtedly be a disproportionate amount of time taken up and it was preferable to mark the degree to which time and money were spent unnecessarily or disproportionately by awarding the claimants only a proportion of their costs of the liability hearing. That appropriate proportion was 75%.