Mysterious claimant to reveal true identity in case against Google

In a rather bizarre case, a litigant in person has somehow for 9 months been involved in a case against Google without revealing his identity to anyone, even the judge in the case.

The man, only known as "ABC", has miraculously been able to keep his real name secret from the court despite an order from the court back in December 2017 for ABC to reveal his identify.

ABC is bringing a claim against a website that is owned by Google for malicious falsehood and defamation. His reasoning for not wanting to reveal his true name is because he fears he will then be a target through Google's ‘Lumen Database’ that records all takedown requests made to Google.

Having failed to reveal his identity as ordered, Mr Justice Nicklin had this to say: "I've never encountered a case in which one party has not known the identity of the other party… you’ve got seven days to give the defendants your name ... If you fail to do that I’m going to strike your action out.”

It appears the court is unamused by ABCs refusal to give his full name, and his non-compliance with orders. Unless he now reveals his identity, the entire claim will be struck out and that will be the end of the matter.

Whether or not ABC will comply with the court's order is yet to be seen, but this case demonstrates that unless the court believes there is a genuine risk to the claimant, they have no grounds to refuse to give their identity to both the court and the defendants.

In some cases, such as where there has been a breach of privacy, or in some cases where injunctions are sought, the court may well agree that proceedings should be anonymised. However, in those cases, the court and the defendant would still be made aware of the claimant's identity, although steps would be taken to ensure that the claimant's (and often defendant's) identity were protected. 

Samuels Solicitors LLP deals with a wide range of reputation management issues, including libel, slander and the right to be forgotten. If you want to bring a claim for defamation of character, or if there is unwanted material about you online that you would like to remove, we will be able to assist you. 

Contact us today for a discussion about how we can help.