This High Court Judge gives ‘plain English’ explanations of some of his judgments

I was reading an interesting High Court decision yesterday involving Mr X and Google.

Mr X has been battling with Google since 2015 concerning what he has described as ‘distressing material’ about Mr X that is published online. He is trying to get Google to remove the offending material from search results.

This High Court decision centred around Google’s application to have Mr X’s legal proceedings struck out on a number of grounds.

I read through the 16 page decision as there were some interesting issues covered in the judgment. But at the very end of the decision there is a two page ‘plain English’ explanation of the Judge’s determination in the case.

This is not the first time I have read such a ‘plain English’ summary of Mr Justice Max Barrett’s judgments. He tries to do it, I understand, when there is a lay litigant in the case.

I think it is an excellent development. It is worth considering, however, why more judges don’t do it.

And it is also worth thinking about why the main judgment, all 16 or 17 pages, cannot be written in a similar style of writing.

Here is the judgment to which I refer.