_{Right story, wrong time.}

A High Court judge has said that Fieldfisher made "a big mistake" when it forwarded a court judgment to journalists in breach of an embargo.

Fieldfisher was acting on a sensitive case where the court sent a confidential draft judgment to parties, ten days before the decision was going to be handed-down publicly.

“Confidential Draft Judgment” was printed at the top of every page, and the front page bore the warning, which the court clerk brought to Fieldfisher's attenton in a covering email, that: "Neither the draft itself nor its substance may be disclosed to any other person or made public in any way. The parties must take all reasonable steps to ensure that it is kept confidential".

However, a media manager at Fieldfisher sent the ruling in advance to journalists at the BBC, Guardian, ITV and Press Association, under a "press embargo".

The manager had told the Fieldfisher partner in charge of the matter, Jill Greenfield, that she intended to send the judgment with quotes to journalists on that basis. 

Mr Justice Fordham said the PR manager had made a "serious error" in treating the court embargo in the same manner as a press embargo, circulating the document to journalists with the proviso that they didn't report on it until a certain time. 

The judge noted that the manager was not a lawyer, while Greenfield had also not fully understood the court embargo and failed to give clear instructions to the media team to prevent them from circulating the judgment.

The judge noted that Greenfield's practice had tended not to encounter embargoed judgments, meaning she was unaware of the rules around disclosure to journalists.

Greenfield was interviewed by a Guardian journalist, but then sought advice from the firm's General Counsel, Andrew Dodd. The GC explained to Greenfield and the media manager the extent of the court embargo, but Fordham said he didn't go far enough, and should have alerted the court.

It only became aware of the breach when the BBC and the Guardian approached one of the parties for comment about the judgment. 

Fordham said the court had "received sincere and heartfelt apologies" and "expressions of remorse and embarrassment" from Fieldfisher.

"I accept the apologies," said the judge, noting that he could "see no risk of repetition." He said the matter would not be taken further as his judgment, which included the heading 'A Big Mistake', was "enough" and "lessons will have been learned."

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