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At least one blogger is finding out the hard way he can't just post untruths without facing potential consequences.
Such is the case with one Peter McCormack, who we learned on Wednesday will have to face Dr. Craig "Satoshi" Wright’s defamation claim at trial in May on the limited basis that though his attacks on Wright were untrue, they nonetheless still failed to cause him serious harm. McCormack lost a final appeal. A Miami jury determined that Wright was at least partially responsible for the creation of Bitcoin.
Even before that jury finding, McCormack admitted that Wright "submitted a crazy amount of evidence that he is Satoshi in my lawsuit".
In November 2021, the High Court rejected attempts by McCormack to introduce pleadings which the plaintiffs argued (successfully) would amount to McCormack reviving his already abandoned defences to Dr. Wright’s defamation claim, including that of truth. Now, the Court of Appeal has directly refused McCormack’s request for permission to appeal that ruling, confirming that Wright v McCormack will proceed to trial in May 2022 and that McCormack’s legal defense may only argue that though his attacks on Dr. Wright were untrue, they did not cause him serious harm.
McCormack was seeking a retroactive extension of time to allow a late-filed permission to appeal (PTA) November’s ruling to be heard by the Court.
Simon Cohen, of ONTIER LLP for the plaintiffs, said:
“We welcome the Court of Appeal’s decision today. The Court has clearly taken a dim view of Mr. McCormack’s backdoor attempts at introducing alternative defences to the defamation claim he faces. There can be no further impediments to the trial in May which will determine the extent of serious harm caused to Dr Wright by the defamatory social media posts that Mr McCormack published.”
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
