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Jonathan Barnes
Profile
Jonathan's practice covers defamation, privacy, confidence, data protection, freedom of information, publishing, broadcasting and media law. He undertakes commercial, contract and agency cases, including sports disputes. He regularly advises on urgent reputation, privacy and confidence issues, often involving the Internet or other forms of electronic communication. He provides pre-publication advice to commercial publishers.
His cases include: Boehringer Ingelheim & Others v Vetplus, on the principles of interim injunctive relief in the context of comparative advertising; Murray v Big Pictures, the JK Rowling pushchair privacy claim; BBC v HarperCollins, on the revelation of the identity of "The Stig"; and Cooper v Turrell, addressing the principles for quantifying damages in libel, privacy and confidence.
Recently, he has acted for the claimants in three significant assessments of damages: the awards of £175,000 and £180,000 libel damages in the two Al Amoudi v Kifle cases (led by Desmond Browne QC); and the awards totalling £120,000 in Cooper v Turrell (above). On the defendant side, he was junior counsel in the 2012 blogging libel trial of Mengi v Hermitage.
In addition to his court work, Jonathan has represented clients at the Broadcasting Standards Commission (now OFCOM), the Office of Fair Trading, the Employment Tribunals, in FA arbitration proceedings and in London Metal Exchange arbitration proceedings.
Career
Called
1999 Called to the Bar
Education
University College, Oxford, BA(Hons), Jurisprudence, 1990
Qualifications
Former solicitor, admitted 1993
Deputy District Judge
Areas of work
- Defamation
- Privacy and Confidence
- Sports Law
- Intellectual Property
- Data Protection
- Pre-publication Advice
- Public Access
- Harassment
- Human Rights
- Injunctive Relief
- Malicious Falsehood
- Media Law
- Professional Negligence
- Publishing
Verbatim
"encapsulates everything that a good libel lawyer should be" - Chambers & Partners, 2012-3
‘...exceptionally talented, dedicated and thorough’ - Legal 500, 2012
Testimonials
Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners leading junior in defamation and privacy
Legal Business legal expert in defamation
Memberships
Evening legal advisor, North Islington Law Centre, 1996 - 1999
Night lawyer, Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2001 - 2002
Bar Pro Bono Unit: panel counsel and case reviewer
JUSTICE
Publications
(17 Oct 2002)
(17 Mar 2011)