The Other Side of the Broadbent Settlement
Benjamin Wallace, author of The Billionaire’s Vinegar (background here and here) disputes the notion that the settlement between Michael Broadbent and the book’s publisher constitutes an admission that the book’s depiction of Broadbent was libelous. Wallace corresponds with Dr. Vino:
I was never personally sued by Mr. Broadbent, and I am not a party to the settlement or apology negotiated by him with Random House. Because of the U.K.’s notoriously plaintiff-friendly libel laws and conditional fee system, the company made a business decision to settle with Mr. Broadbent in order to contain its legal costs and exposure in the U.K. Since the claim was always confined to the book’s availability in the U.K., the settlement does not prevent the book from being published anywhere else or require that a single word be changed. So, while Random House has agreed not to distribute the book in the U.K., the book remains available in the United States, where the libel laws provide greater protection for freedom of speech and where British libel judgments are almost never enforceable, thanks to the First Amendment.
Read the rest of the statement here.
