Overview
- Richard Taylor will receive substantial damages, and the defendants will pay his legal costs under the settlement announced in court.
- The parties agreed to change the film, with the defendants saying they will add an on-screen clarification stating the portrayal is fictional, which reporters indicated will appear in England and Wales.
- A preliminary ruling by Judge Jaron Lewis last year found the film portrayed Taylor as knowingly misrepresenting facts and as smug and dismissive, a meaning the court said could be defamatory.
- The settlement avoids a full trial, and Mrs Justice Collins Rice praised both sides for sparing the time, expense and stress of further proceedings.
- Coogan, Baby Cow and Pathé said they are proud of the film and conscious of their responsibilities in portraying real stories, while Taylor’s lawyer called the outcome a ‘defamation David and Goliath’ moment with potential implications for future dramatizations.