ACS:Law case closes with out of court settlements

The legal battle between alleged illegal filesharers and law firm ACS:Law has finally drawn to a close, with the last of the disputes being settled outside of the courts.

ACS:Law, and its sole registered solicitor Andrew Crossley, was widely discredited for sending intimidating letters to thousands of ISP customers in the hope that alleged file sharers would pay fines out of court. The law firm ceased trading in February of this year.

Out of the 10,000 letter recipients, some 26 were hauled into court by ACS:Law, but after mass criticism from the media and activist groups, Crossley asked to have the lawsuits dismissed. Following this, the judge ruled that it was acceptable for an application for wasted costs to go ahead against Crossley, as it was argued that he had breached standard solicitor conduct.

Judge Birss said that "ACS:Law's conduct was chaotic and lamentable" and he did not "doubt that this led to unnecessarily incurred costs".

Since the application for wasted costs was announced in April, ACS:Law and legal firm Ralli, which acted for a number of the defendants, have settled the costs "on a basis confidential between the parties".

"We considered from an early stage that these actions against our clients were not brought correctly. The judgment and eventual settlement supports our view in all material respects," said Michael Forrester, a solicitor in Ralli's intellectual property and information technology team.

"The legal basis for the claims made against these alleged file sharers involves complex legal technical principles. These are extremely difficult for a lay person to understand and can lead to an innocent person being pursued".