Focus: Cost of the Law: Big Macs and Big Bucks: Costly Cases of Our Times

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McDONALD'S V STEEL & MORRIS (1994)

Ending in June 1997 after two- and-a-half years, the "McLibel" trial was the longest in English history, and is believed to have cost McDonald's pounds 10m. Two Greenpeace activists, Helen Steel and Dave Morris, were ordered to pay it pounds 40,000 compensation after the publication of a leaflet, What's Wrong with McDonald's? The leaflet said the firm's products harmed its customers and it exploited Third World countries. Mr Justice Bell ruled that although most of the allegations were libellous, some of the lesser ones were true, giving Steel and Morris a partial victory.

COUNT TOLSTOY V LOW/ ALDINGTON (1989)

In …