ACS Law cases thrown out of court

The 26 cases of alleged copyright infringement brought by controversial law firm ACS Law and Media Cat have been thrown out of court.

At the hearing at the Patents Court yesterday to decide how to proceed with the cases, Judge Birss said that the copyright owners had not made an application to take the claims forward; despite being given "sufficient time" to do this.

"Plainly proceeds should be brought to an end in my judgement. The failure [of the copyright owners] to comply with the court order [means] it would be wrong to continue. Accordingly I will strike them out," he said.

Judge Birss has been scathing about the litigation from the start. At an earlier hearing he said: "Let me be absolutely straight. I am getting the distinct impression that with every twist and turn, it appears the claimant is trying to avoid judicial scrutiny."

But although he had considered imposing an order so that the claims could not be reissued, as this wasn't requested by the defendants' barrister Guy Tritton, Judge Birss said he would place no such "fetter on the claimants to restart actions".

The hearing yesterday then dealt with the issue of costs, with Mr Tritton asking the court to make ACS Law, which was soley owned by Andrew Crossley, liable for these.

He said Andrew Crossley had entered into a "champertous agreement", which is an unethical one, and the sole reason he brought the legal action was to "make money for himself".

Mr Tritton said that costs should be granted and should be "off the scale".

"Mr Crossley was driving this litigation and he would get the lion's share of the proceeds. The letters were misleading and deliberately crafted to fool recipients," he said.

This was rebutted by ACS Law's barrister Paul Parker. He said ACS Law had actually lost money on the litigation and had only made £300,000 from people who had paid up after receiving a letter from the company.

He asked Judge Birss to end proceedings and not take the issue of costs to the next stage. The day-long hearing ended without the a ruling by Judge Birss.

However, he said: "If ever there was a case with conduct out of the norm it was this one."

It is expected that Judge Birss will make a decision soon on whether to dismiss the case for wasted and third-party costs or schedule another hearing.