LETTERS Self-esteem's value
Sir: You are doubly in error in reporting (Portrait of the Week, 10 July) that 'Mr Major and Miss Clare Latimer received £1,100 each from the New Statesman in an out-of-court settlement of a libel suit brought after comments on their separate private lives'.
All other reports are that the plaintiffs received £1,001 each. But the main point is that this was not an out-of-court settlement, generally understood to mean a compro- mise negotiated by the parties to bring their litigation to an end. Rather, the plaintiffs' acceptance of money paid into court was an explicit — albeit doubtless reluctant concurrence by them in the finely calculat- ed judgment of the New Statesman of the damages a jury might have thought appro- priate to mark the gravity of the libel. Not to have taken the money in court would have been to risk an award to the plaintiffs of damages of £1,000 or less and hence an award to the defendant of the costs of the action from the date on which the plaintiffs ought to have accepted the money in court. What remains to be seen, as a possible epi- logue to the plaintiffs' preference for dis- cretion over valour, is whether they will seek the leave of the court to have a state- ment read in open court as the formal vin- dication of their decision to sue. Any such statement has to be approved by the judge in advance as a precaution against the plaintiffs' self-esteem being exaggerated. Anthony Rentoul
25 Strawberry Hill Road, Twickenham, Middlesex
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