A man allegedly involved with a controversial website which invites people to "rate" their lawyers is facing a four-month jail sentence for contempt of court orders directing the removal of material about a Dublin barrister from the site.
A second man was fined €10,000 for contempt because he answered "the cat" when the judge asked who was responsible for making a derisory snort after he said he would jail John Gill.
Mr Gill, who denies involvement with either the www.rateyoursolicitor.com or crookedlawyers.com websites, has until Thursday to secure the removal of any material referring to Dublin-based barrister Jayne Maguire or he will be jailed, the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan warned yesterday.
He was not interfering with the proper expression of views and opinions, the judge stressed. "I am advising you to be sensible," he told Mr Gill.
"No one wants to silence you but there are some things that, in a civilised society, you will not be permitted to do, and you and your members have crossed that line."
Charles Farrell, Roebuck Castle, Clonskeagh, who is not involved in the proceedings, was fined €10,000 for contempt of court by Mr Justice Finnegan during the hearing of the proceedings involving Mr Gill.
The fine was imposed over an incident which occurred immediately after Mr Justice Finnegan said he would jail Mr Gill. A person in court snorted, in apparent derision of the judge's ruling.
When Mr Justice Finnegan asked who made the noise, Mr Farrell, who was among some 20 people in court who were apparent supporters of Mr Gill, replied: "The cat."
Mr Justice Finnegan ordered Mr Farrell to come to the bench and asked him his name and address. Asked by the judge whether he would apologise, Mr Farrell asked: "For what?"
The judge asked: "Where's the cat?", said he proposed fining Mr Farrell €10,000 for contempt and directed him to leave the court.
Mr Farrell responded: "Is this a public building?" and also asked what authority the judge had.
The judge asked him if he proposed leaving. Mr Farrell said he would leave and then walked out of the courtroom.
The events arose in proceedings by Ms Maguire who claims Mr Gill, Drumline, Newmarket on Fergus, had posted defamatory statements about her "of the most offensive and damaging nature both personally and professionally" on the site "www.rateyoursolicitor.com".
Mr Gill denies any involvement with the website. He has also alleged that Ms Maguire had told him it was a colleague who had posted the material complained of.
On November 3rd last, the High Court ordered that all material referring to Ms Maguire be removed from the website.
In court yesterday, Paul O'Higgins SC, for Ms Maguire, said material about her remained on the website.
