| The Mcdonalds Corporation has used the threat of litigation to protect both its logos and also its reputation. This is an example in which the threat of legal action came unstuck. Two British enviromentalists had handed out material which it was later found out defamed the McDonalds corporation. Defamation action was threatened unless the enviromentalists recanted. This they refused to do and McDonalds issued a writ suggesting that they had been libeled. It was at this point that McDonalds made a serious legal error in making some allegations against the enviromentalists. This led to a counter suite for defamation which was run at the same time. The problem for McDonalds was that they had to lead evidence to prove their case. Normally in a defamation case it would be up to the defendant to do so. As the two enviromentalists were both broke they would not have been able to do so. However McDonalds by their tactical mistake forced themselves to provide evidence to back up their claims. The two enviromentalists were able to cross examine the various McDonalds witnesses to provide evidence for their claims. As a result the case went on for so long that it became Britain's longest ever case. The two enviromentalists had a year to learn how to cross examine and were able to elicit some evidence that was unflattering McDonalds. In these sorts of cases costs of litigation are nominally recoverable from the losing side. However as the two enviromentalists had no money any cost order against them was without value. This led to a incredibly long and expensive case which ended up bleeding McDonalds with the unfortunate side effect that the two enviromentalists were able to milk it for all it was worth to attack the reputation of McDonalds. From the point of view of the firm a total disaster... The decision to litigate had been a disaster. The book is okay but leaden at times, the film that was released of the event is probably a bit more interesing. |
McLibel Used Books New.