On 22 May 20224, the Court of Appeal handed down its Judgment upholding James Solicitors’ client Selman Turk’s appeal against the immediate custodial sentence for Contempt of Court imposed by the High Court.
In a 172 page Judgment which can be read at Isbilen v Turk & Ors [2024] EWCA Civ 568 (22 May 2024), Lewison LJ, with whom Moylan and Laing LJJ agreed, decided that the Court should show Mr Turk mercy in circumstances where:
- he had already been incarcerated for the equivalent of a six-week sentence before being released on bail,
- There were ongoing underlying proceedings in which Mr Turk was a litigant in person and in which there will be difficulties for Mr Turk in trying to conduct his defence from prison;
- Mr Turk should be given a further opportunity to comply with his disclosure obligations, which again would be much more difficult to do in prison.
Mrs Isbilen’s cross appeal asking the Court to impose a more severe sentence was also rejected as having no real prospect of success.
The result is vindication for Mr Turk, and the hard work of his legal team, led by James Solicitors’ Marc Livingston and assisted by Catriona Virden, instructing James Counsell KC and Helen Pugh of Outer Temple Chambers, in extremely difficult circumstances.
Our swift action and detailed grounds of appeal resulted in the rare (if not only recent) example of the Court of Appeal granting bail to a civil prisoner found to be in Contempt by the Court, pending the outcome of his Appeal.
Due to the case’s connection with various members of the Royal family, the case has been covered by a number of national publications, with the Daily Mail covering the successful appeal and the Guardian, the Times and the BBC covering other aspects of the case.