Articles

Litigation PR: A Best Practice Guide - Clare Rodway, Kysen PR

Clare Rodway is managing director of Kysen PR.


What is ‘litigation PR'? Is this brief something we can handle ourselves? Or should we be calling in the
experts?


So-called litigation PR falls most commonly into three categories, each having distinct characteristics,
challenges and levels of risk attached.


The first category is promoting lawyers' expertise on the back of other people's cases, using these as
‘hooks' for displaying the lawyers' expertise, but avoiding many of the tricky issues surrounding media
treatment of your own live cases. Promoting a lawyer's expertise in this way can be challenging for PRs
not used to it, especially where the case involves only dry business issues, simply because it requires a
very good working knowledge of how a litigator's expertise adds value/interest to business or other
reporting. However, other than struggling with the challenge of getting a story or theme off the ground,
there is little serious risk for consultancies in taking on litigation PR briefs of this type.


The second two types of litigation PR are a different matter altogether, concerning the media handling
of live cases where your client is directly involved. These carry a risk of ending up in contempt of court if
you misunderstand or misapply Court Procedure Rules for handling communications and media around
cases.


The first of these involves using PR as a tool to encourage early or favourable settlement in civil or
commercial cases.


The second focuses on managing the ongoing reputation of a client and limiting the damage that the
litigation can do to this.


There are all manner of lessons and top tips I could pass on here, such as:


• Always work with established Court Reporters where you can, as these will have high
ethical/professional standards as well as a good understanding of how the courts, cases and Court
Rules work and thus will be more manageable from your point of view.


• If you are on the ‘wrong' side of the case from the media's point of view (i.e. Goliath's rather than
David's) then find creative ways to win busy journalists over by being the most helpful (user-friendly,
informative and timely) PR in the case to them.


• For example, consider offering to provide witness statements as your client is cross-examined,
saving journalists the bother of attending court on that day - because any report based on your
client's witness statement rather than their performance under the pressure of cross-examination
(where some witnesses will completely fall apart) is always going to help promote their side of the
story over the opposition's.


• However, only ever release court documents to journalists when you have actual knowledge they
have been handed down in court (at which point they are deemed to be ‘public'). Never assume.


• Remember that no-one wants a pyrrhic victory - which means working hard to align legal and commercial arguments (and making sure the legal and commercial teams within your client's organisation understand the importance of seeing eye to eye on this too).


• Also remember that the winner in the courtroom will not necessarily be the winner in the headlines. Unforgettable of course was Ian Hislop's famous quip on the steps of the court after losing a defamation suit against Sonia Sutcliffe. His quote, “If this is justice then I'm a banana,” understandably grabbed all the headlines. Public reaction was so strong that Ms Sutcliffe volunteered to drop a zero off the end of her payout.


However, rather than study the detail of how to run media campaigns around live cases, far better to
understand when it's time to call in the experts and avoid the risk of ending up in contempt of court
altogether.

www.kysenpr.co.uk
www.twitter.com/kysen

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