No, in a moment. I want to make some progress first.
If the claimant succeeded at the permission stage, an early resolution hearing would often still be needed to enable the court to give a ruling on other key aspects of the claim—in particular, what the meaning of the words complained of was and whether they were statements of fact or opinion. This would mean that two sets of applications and hearings could often be needed, whereas under our proposals one would be sufficient. We have consistently made it clear that we are fully committed to taking action to help reduce the cost of defamation proceedings. The amendment would have precisely the opposite effect.
In addition to the early resolution proposals, the Civil Justice Council has recently submitted to the Secretary of State its recommendations for cost protection in defamation and privacy proceedings. We are considering these carefully, with a view to introducing measures to give protection to parties with limited means when they are faced by an opponent with substantially greater resources. The amendment would undermine these initiatives and in many cases create unnecessary additional costs for both claimants and defendants.