What to do about libel law

Lessons from Dan Neidle’s recent court case

Another AI image from Google Gemini…

Dan Neidle spent 25 years as a tax lawyer, including as head of tax at the London office of one of the world’s largest law firms. Since then, he has founded Tax Policy Associates, a pro-bono, not-for-profit company, founded to improve tax and legal policy, and the public understanding of tax.

As part of that work, TPA published a report last year about a firm called Arka Wealth. This company had published many TikTok videos promoting a scheme that it claimed would eliminate all corporate tax, income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax in the UK and across Europe.

TPA described this as an “unbelievable claim” and reported tax advisers saying that the scheme was technically without merit, with many thinking it could amount to fraud. The firm was backed by a tax barrister, Setu Kamal, who said in a YouTube video he provided an opinion to all of Arka Wealth’s clients.

Kamal was unhappy, and wrote to Neidle demanding to be paid “80% of the amount his clients claimed he’d lost in fees” and that Neidle should publicly state his “sincere belief” that Kamal is “the leading barrister in the field of taxation in the country”. When Neidle did not do this, Kamal began an £8m defamation claim against Neidle and Tax Policy Associates.

Kamal lost. Part of the claim was struck out, and Neidle obtained summary judgment on the rest. The court also held that the case was a SLAPP, defined by the Law Society as “an abuse of the legal process, where the primary objective is to harass, intimidate and financially and psychologically exhaust one’s opponent via improper means”.

Although Kamal lost, the action still cost Neidle and TPA £146,000. He also says he “suffered some alarm/distress at the size of the claim”. I am not surprised! More generally, as Neidle says, “For someone without my legal training or financial resources, it would be irrational to have fought Kamal.”

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