Sorrell Defamation Suit Dismissed

A New York state judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought last summer against WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell by Sabharwal & Finkel, the law firm at the time representing TAM India case plaintiff New Delhi Television.

The Manhattan firm's principals, Adam Finkel and Rohit Sabharwal, sued Sorrell for libel and slander after interviews with an Indian business publication following development of the NDTV / TAM case.

The suit claimed Sorrell made a number of remarks damaging to the firm's reputation, including the suggestions that they were trying to 'extort' money in the form of a settlement for NDTV, and had handled the NDTV suit in an 'inexpert' way. He also mistakenly described the firm as based in Florida.

New York State Supreme Court Judge Cynthia S. Kern decided none of these statements constituted defamation and dismissed the suit entirely, ruling: 'No reasonable reader would conclude that a law firm or lawyers are incompetent, unfit or unethical' after reading the remarks, and that reasonable readers would 'understand the defendant's statement was an opinion about the merits of the lawsuit.'

Neither party has made an official comment on the decision.

The NDTV / TAM case has recently been thrown out of a New York Court, a judge ruling that it should be heard in Indian, and although the broadcaster is appealing the decision in the case of US-based Nielsen, it has not done so in the case of UK-based WPP.

Web site: www.wpp.com .