The newspapers argued that their ECHR, art 10 rights were
infringed by orders to reimburse the success
fees and ATE premiums incurred by the claimants, under the Access to Justice Act 1999
regime.
Indeed, even the respondent, as well as some of the other provinces, conceded that at some hypothetical level, hearing
fees would be so high as to prevent superior courts from having any litigants before them, thus
infringing this core jurisdiction, although they argued that the
fee regime at issue was not problematic in this way.