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Truth, lies & media mobs

29 April 2022 / Amy Zuckerman
Issue: 7976 / Categories: Features , Profession , Media
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Amy Zuckerman reports on how lawyers can help their clients deal with the media
  • Lawyers to be media savvy and to have strategies in place for protecting clients both during and after a trial.

Colin Stagg, falsely accused in 1992 of murdering Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common, spent a year in custody before being found not guilty in 1994. Last year, he revealed in a newspaper interview how false perceptions of his guilt have dogged him ever since, making him unemployable.

Matt Bosworth, who was a clerk at the time at Russell-Cooke, the firm which represented Stagg, says he was ‘able to see how the mass media went to work on a character assassination’. Stagg’s predicament, however, occurred pre-internet and pre-social media. Bosworth, now a partner at Russell-Cooke, says social media has made it even more important for lawyers to be media savvy and to have strategies in place for protecting clients both during and after a trial.

Who’s publishing?

Back then, Bosworth explains, it was possible to ‘know

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NEWS
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Rylatt and Robyn Laye of Anthony Gold Solicitors examine recent international relocation cases where allegations of domestic abuse shaped outcomes
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