What is a Cease and Desist anyway?

Brian, my nearest legal eagle, wrote a nice neat explanation of Cease and Desist in the comments yesterday. Here's what he says:

"The letter itself is basically a threat to bring legal action, so the only cost involved is paying a lawyer to draft it. It's therefore very easy for a large organisation to impose their will over someone whom they know is unlikely to be able to afford legal representation. It can make little difference how strong their case actually is. I notice that a lot of the Facebook groups are referring to US law, whereas it seems likely that SSG would bring a defamation action in the UK. Liberty provides a short guide to the relevant law. Dave should really get himself to a Citizens' Advice Bureau. The famous "McLibel Two" managed to argue that it was a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights for them to be denied legal aid to defend a defamation action, so he might have a chance!"

SO, Dave, Sam Norton, Phil Groom (an, apparently, anyone who has ever commented on Phil's site) and anyone else who is being bothered by the SSG situation - get thee to the CAB. Still, no need to worry excessively about winding up in court or worse - since according to SSG, we are apparently all destined for the pit anyway...

Comments

[Brian]

Hi Maggi

Having looked into this further, it seems Mark Brewer is determined to take action in the US rather than the UK.

Brian