Statement in Dinah Rose KC case

A high-profile legal dispute between Dinah Rose KC and The Times has reached a resolution today following the making of a statement in open court and the publication of an apology.

The case concerned an article published by The Times on 21 November 2022, Law chiefs rule against college head in gay row, which falsely claimed that Ms Rose had wrongly claimed she was professionally obliged to take on a same-sex marriage case in the Cayman Islands and had acted recklessly. The Bar Standards Board issued a public statement clarifying that no regulatory action was taken against Ms Rose and that she had acted in accordance with her professional obligations. Ms Rose, a prominent barrister and President of Magdalen College, Oxford, brought proceedings for libel over the article.

The Times has apologised to Ms Rose and agreed to pay substantial damages and her legal costs.

The statement in open court was read in the Royal Courts of Justice before HHJ Lewis (sitting as a Judge of the High Court) and is available in full here. The apology is available here (£).

William Bennett KC, instructed by Mark Lewis of Patron Law, acted for Dinah Rose KC.

Joshua Rozenberg has written a free-to-read piece on his substack: Times apologises to Dinah Rose.