Today, Simon Singh got what many skeptics around the world and in the skeptical blogosphere are celebrating as good news: the libel charges against him brought by the British Chiropractic Association have officially been dropped, after he recently won an appeal in the preliminary phase of the case.

And it certainly is good new in many ways. First, Singh won't have to spend another two years of his life defending his right to say that he thinks chiropractic does not result in the positive medical outcomes some chiropractors claim, as he did in the original article in The Guardian that incited the BCA to file the claim of libel against him in the first place. Second, there won’t be the continued exorbitant expense of the libel case itself: over $500,000 has been spent on the case so far by both parties, and it hasn't officially even gone to trial yet (the preliminary proceedings he won at appeal recently were only about the meanings of the words in his original article, and not a winning of the appeal of the libel trial itself). So with all this good news, is there a downside?

I think so, and for two reasons: First, Singh was perfectly willing for the trial to continue, since he was in a very strong position to win at trial in front of the the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, which would have had very positive effect in scaling back the British libel laws. Singh considers England's libel laws to be the worst in the world since they stifle the free exchange of ideas more than any other Western nation's. They have been abused by dictators who sue human rights groups for criticizing them, and corporations who sue reporters for giving them bad press. The precedent that would have been set were Singh able to win his case at trial would have made future such claims of libel less likely. Second, because the case is over, the public’s attention on the matter may wane. Singh’s case has caused many leading thinkers and celebrities around the world, such as Richard Dawkins and Stephen Fry, to speak up in defense of him, and to lobby for English libel law reform.

The task before the pro-science and skeptic community, therefore, is to avoid letting up. The fight is not over just because the British Chiropractic Association dropped their libel case against Simon Singh. You can get involved in the ongoing effort to repeal England's horrible libel laws by going to LibelReform.org.

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Expensive news for Simon Singh also
written by gerastuff, April 15, 2010

According to The Guardian, besides all the points already made. Simon will be paying 20,000 pounds from his own pocket in the end even if they rule the British Chiropractors to pay for the legal expenses. Furthermore he has been unable to receive steady earnings for 2 whole years that he won't recover

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written by Lee, April 15, 2010

It would not surprise me at all if the BCA dropped the case in order to prevent the 'science' of their brand of nonsense coming to light in further legal proceedings.

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written by Lee, April 15, 2010

Oh I only just noticed the timing of this win for reason; this blow against homeopathy makes an uncomfortable start to World Homeopathy Awareness Week!

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written by Otara, April 15, 2010

A precedent would have been great but Im very happy for Mr Singh. Long term court cases can do massive damage to peoples health even when the outcome is going to inevitably be on their side, and a final decision could have taken years more again.

At least some of these quack based organisations know that people will gather to fight this kind of legal bullying in future. Its not the ideal endpoint, but its progress.

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Lee:
written by Michael K Gray, April 15, 2010

Singh's blow was against chiropractic, not homeopathy.
That's next in the war against woo!

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Yes, it is good news!
written by kdv, April 15, 2010

Good news for all of us.

With respect to your first point, if he chooses to do so, Simon can, according to the excellent Jack of Kent legal blog, apply to the court to set aside the BCA's withdrawal, and force the case to continue. Personally, I hope he doesn't, not just because of the financial issues, but mainly because I'd like somebody of Simon's ability and integrity able to focus on other things for a while, which would benefit all of us. Someone rather wickedly suggested that this decision should be made after the discussions about the awarding of costs.

Secondly, the libel law reform movement has attained its own momentum now, and all three major parties contesting the upcoming election have committed to addressing the issue.

I personally hope they're very careful about this. Next time, it might be somebody like Dawkins, for example, who is attacked, and if that attack were likely to severely damage his reputation and his ability to do his job, I'd hope he'd be able to seek redress in the courts.

I would also just mention three words. Earl Gordon Curley. Randi himself, very justifiably IMHO, launched a libel lawsuit against this person some time back, after Mr Curley repeatedly made personal attacks on Randi of a particularly vile and contemptuous nature. The trial was aborted only after Mr. Curley had the good grace to die. Without either his death or the lawsuit, Curley would undoubtedly be still repeating his defamatory lies, and enough people would take the "where there's smoke" attitude for it to be very damanging to Mr Randi, which means to all of us. Let's be careful what we wish for, people.

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Quote of the day...
written by ianmacm, April 15, 2010

By L. Ron Hubbard:

The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than win.

The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly.

See http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fis...xhibg.html for the origins of this famous quote.

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The Battle Continues
written by Twm Sion Cati, April 15, 2010

A quick response to crystalnight, I thought it was significant that one of the links includes an advert for Alzheimers research, which to me, proves that if there is a god, he/she is not much of a humanitarian. Perhaps people like you would take on board that us atheists would change in a flash if there was proof of the existence of god or even a high probability of the existence.

But my real reason for replying. There is still more work for us to do in the UK, because as the law stands, nobody in any country can safely publish criticism of medical procedures if there is any possibility of publication in the UK. The most urgent of many cases is that of Dr Peter Wilmshurt, who is an NHS cardiologist and academic who had concerns over a flawed clinical trial of a heart implant, in which he was the lead investigator. Dr Wilmshurst is now being pursued through the libel courts by the US manufacturer. He has been forced to defend himself, paying his own legal bills into 6 figures, and spending every spare second on the case. http://business.timesonline.co...932252.ece

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written by latsot, April 16, 2010

I'm a little more upbeat than DJ about this news. I'm delighted for Simon: he's a new father and a busy guy and I imagine he'll be relieved to have this weight off his mind. I certainly celebrate his getting back to his proper job of science communication at which he excels. However, I'm still me and therefore have an additional cynical point to raise. Although this case has made a huge impact on Simon, taken a year or so of his life and probably cost him tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds, the BCA probably won't even notice. They might moderate future claims on websites and adverts for a while, but I doubt it will change chiropracters' sordid business practices. They'll carry on doing the same shit. See Simon's original article, now excellently back online, to see what fun games they play.

This is where I think DJ needs to do more than link. Chiropractic seems a good target for the JREF to hound. Let's kick them while they're down. Let's continue to show people that it might just might be ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT.

But on the upside, as kdv said, the libel reform movement has gained its own momentum. Public interest might wane, but there's an election due and every party has added libel reform to its manifesto. We'll see how that works out, but it's the first time - despite many deplorable cases - that the public has understood how insane our libel laws are.

Don't underestimate the significance of what Simon has achieved. This really is an important victory and the fact that it could have worked out better for a hypothetical skeptical movement is possibly something to regret but also pure speculation.

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Michael:
written by Lee, April 17, 2010

I'm getting my flavours of silly mixed it seems. Still, a victory for reason makes a great start to World Woo Awareness Week, whatever the flavour.

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Homeopathy, chiropractic...
written by Marcus, April 18, 2010

In a burst of ironic justice, it was actually also the start of the Chiropractic Awareness Week!

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justice at last
written by m spencer, April 23, 2010

I agree, very sad that it has to cost one person so much lost time and money to fight for justice. Healthy debate and comment can only help medical therapy to advance. Hopefully the Chiropractor Association will think twice now before they pick on the little guy again. It seems like a worldwide trend - New Zealand Chiropractor Association did the same to someone who wrote in the medical journal in July 2008 (http://www.chiropractic.org.nz/resources/news) and the Australian Chiropractor Association took an animal chiropractor John Jamieson to court which they released this statement about (http://web.archive.org/web/200...mieson.pdf). It is something that needs to stop - the 'big guys' vs the 'little guys' whenever anyone steps out of line 'in their book' - it doesnt help anyone!

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