Carter-Ruck is a British law firm founded by Peter Carter-Ruck. He founded the company after his former partners in Oswald Hickson told him to retire. According to their website they specialise in libel, privacy, international law and commercial litigation. They offer some of their services including libel actions on a no win, no fee basis.

Notable cases

Madeleine McCann

The firm has been involved in several libel cases related to the missing child, Madeleine McCann. The Independent reported in July 2008 that they were advising the so called, "Tapas 7" who were dining with the child's parents when she went missing. In September 2009, they launched a libel case against a website which was claiming that the child was dead. The website also made claims that child's parents were in some way responsible for her disappearance. In a statement on the website the owners also claimed that Carter-Ruck demanded that copies of leaflets and booklets it has published be handed over to them.

Michael Martin

Michael Martin, the former Speaker of the British House of Commons spent over £21,000 of public funds employing Carter-Ruck to defend him against newspaper reports that questioned whether he acted impartially in the House of Commons.

Police Federation

The Police Federation of England and Wales employed the firm on a no-win, no fee basis after a Detective Inspector of Northumbria Police produced a report on a murder case that was later called "discredited" and "unfounded" by a more senior officer. The Guardian reported that if the Detective Inspector won his case of slander against the force that the force would end up owing Carter-Ruck around £1.5 million.

Shilpa Shetty

Shilpa Shetty consulted Carter-Ruck after the Celebrity Big Brother racism controversy, she failed to pay a bill of £13,000 pounds and was later sued by the firm as a result.

Stopping book critical of scientology

In late 2008, John Duignan, a former scientologist published The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology, a book critical of the scientology. Carter-Ruck citing defamation laws stopped Amazon.com from publishing the book in Britain.

Trafigura

In September 2009, The Guardian reported that Carter-Ruck demanded it delete published articles relating to the Trafigura toxic oil disaster, saying it was "gravely defamatory" and "untrue" to say that Trafigura's waste had been dumped cheaply and could have caused deaths and serious injuries. The Guardian later reported that Trafigura agreed to pay compensation to 31,000 west African victims. The Guardian also alleged that other media outlets in Holland and Norway were also threatened with gagging orders. These turned out to be NRK in Norway, and Volkskrant and Greenpeace in Holland .

In October 2009, The Guardian reported that it was forbidden to report in a parliamentary matter, being "forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret. The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck." The paper further claimed that this case appears "to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights".

The question subject to the gagging order was from Paul Farrelly, MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme:

The firm abandoned attempts to prevent reporting of the events, which concerned Trafigura and a report into a toxic waste dump in Côte d'Ivoire, the day after The Guardian had been prevented from reporting it.

According to a press release on the firm's website the reason that The Guardian could not report the question asked by Paul Farrelly was because a gagging order has been in place since 11 September 2009, before the MP asked the question. They also stated that it had never been their intention to prevent the press reporting on parliament and that they had since agreed on changes with The Guardian to the gagging order so that they could report on the issue.
The Conservative MP, Peter Bottomley has stated that he will report the firm to the Law Society due to their actions which prevented The Guardian covering parliamentary proceedings.

Criticism

Sir Christopher Meyer, chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) said that the PCC was the firm's "sworn enemy" and accused the firm of using a Commons select committee hearing to attack the PCC. He suggested that Carter-Ruck and other media law firms probably saw the PCC as their enemy because, "we can do the job for free and can provide a degree of discretion." Cameron Doley, managing partner with Carter-Ruck denied the accusations made against them.

The firm is also referred to as 'Carter-Fuck' by Private Eye, a satirical magazine, supposedly for many of the firm's immoral decisions.

Competitors

Other firms involved in the same field as Carter-Ruck include Olswang and Reynolds Porter Chamberlain.