The Court of Appeal has dismissed a libel case brought by a pupillage-less Bar graduate against his old university.
Representing himself, Keith Crossland had sued Glamorgan University for comments its staff members made by email when they tried to prevent him doing the second year of a master’s degree. Crossland had sought to do the course after he completed the Bar Vocational Course (now known as the BPTC) at the University of the West of England in 2009…
But with the staff members’ comments protected by qualified privilege, and Crossland’s argument that the privilege had been destroyed by malice not accepted by the court, the case was struck out.
Crossland, who received a £10,300 scholarship from Inner Temple to study for the Bar having got a first in his undergraduate law degree, then appealed the decision. The latest hearing – a second appeal of the decision to strike out the case – took place last month in the Court of Appeal.
It’s not the first time that Crossland has appeared as a litigant-in-person – scoring mixed results on his previous forays in court.
In 2009 he successfully sued the company which employed him as a security guard while he studied for the Bar, winning an award of £699.22 for holiday pay that was due to him.
Prior to that, Crossland took a hardware company where he had been a store manager to court, first for unfair dismissal, and then, after that application was struck out, for libel following a letter it had issued about his work. He was unsuccessful, with summary judgment awarded in favour of the hardware company.
When contacted by Legal Cheek, Crossland expressed his dissatisfaction with the recent Court of Appeal verdict.
