Litigation Communications

You can win the case
and still lose the client.

Litigation PR for law firms — addressed to the audience that is not the court. Customers, investors, lenders, staff and regulators are reading about your client now, and reaching conclusions the judgment will arrive too late to change.

Speak to us in confidence
office@digital-pr.ai

Engaged by the firm, not the clientApproved statements onlyNothing addressed to the courtLegal trade & national pressNDA before the brief

Eighteen months

A commercial dispute is filed in March. It will be heard the following autumn, if nothing slips, and something always slips.

Meanwhile the client’s largest customer reads one paragraph in a trade title and quietly declines to renew. A relationship manager at the bank forwards the same paragraph to credit. Two people in the sales team start taking calls from recruiters. None of them will wait for the judgment, because none of them has to.

By the time you win — and you may well win — the thing you were defending has changed shape.

Your client is not asking you to fix that, because he does not think it is your job. He is simply becoming quieter on the calls, and you have put it down to the strain.

The case is decided by a judge who will read everything. The rest is decided by people who will read one paragraph and never look again.

The only question that matters

Who is the article for?

Every enquiry we take turns on this. Get it right and the work is ordinary, defensible communications practice. Get it wrong and it is a criminal offence in England, a bar complaint in the United States, and a libel claim almost anywhere.

IF THE AUDIENCE IS

The court

A judge. A jury. A witness. Anyone who will decide, or give evidence in, the matter itself.

We decline the instruction.

That is not squeamishness. In England and Wales the Contempt of Court Act 1981 applies on a strict liability basis once proceedings are active — intention is irrelevant, and creating a substantial risk of serious prejudice is enough. We are not willing to do that to your client, or to you.

IF THE AUDIENCE IS

The market

Customers deciding whether to renew. Investors deciding whether to hold. Lenders reviewing a facility. Staff deciding whether to stay. Counterparties deciding whether to sign.

That is what we do, and it is entirely proper.

Factual, on the record, approved by you line by line, and disclosed wherever the publication or the law requires it. Nothing asserted that cannot be evidenced. Nothing said about the other side that a court has not already found.

Most lawyers arrive wanting the first and needing the second.
The second is usually the one that saves the business.

The work itself

Eight things a litigation partner should not be doing at 9pm.

None of this is legal work. All of it lands on you anyway, usually on the day you can least afford it.

Holding statements

Drafted before you need one, so the first hour after something breaks is not spent writing. Silence is a position, and it is rarely the one you want to have taken by accident.

Media enquiries

Journalists ring the firm because they cannot reach the client. We take the calls, log every approach, and bring you only the ones that need a decision.

The public record

Filings, rulings and judgments are already public. Putting them in front of the people who matter, accurately, is not advocacy. It is correction.

Inaccurate reporting

Where a report is wrong on the facts, we approach the publication properly — correction, clarification, right of reply — before anyone reaches for a pre-action letter.

Spokesperson preparation

If your client is going to speak, he should have practised. Two hours beforehand is worth more than any statement written afterwards.

Judgment day

Both outcomes written, approved and ready in advance. Handed down at 10am, live by 10:40, in the titles your client’s market actually reads.

Legal trade press

Law & Crime, Lawyers Weekly, the state law journals and the UK legal titles — where your peers, and your client’s next general counsel, will read about the result.

After it ends

A win nobody hears about is a cost centre. Most reputational recovery happens in the ninety days after judgment, and almost nobody plans for it.

How we are engaged

By your firm. Never by your client directly.

This is not a preference about invoicing. In England and in several other jurisdictions, a communications consultant brought inside a live matter by the client can put legal professional privilege over those communications at risk.

Instructed through the firm, under your retainer and your engagement terms, that risk is managed in the ordinary way. We work to your conflict checks, your file-handling rules and your approval chain.

If a prospective supplier has not raised privilege with you before discussing price, they have not done this before.

Where you are matters

The same article is lawful in one country and criminal in another.

England & Wales. Strict liability contempt from the moment proceedings are active. The tightest regime we work in, and the one where clients most often ask for the wrong thing.

United States. Far more permissive in law, but ABA Model Rule 3.6 limits what an attorney may say about a pending matter — and Rule 8.4(a) means you cannot instruct an agent to say what you may not say yourself. We will not put your licence in play.

Elsewhere. Reporting restrictions, anonymity orders and blanket sub judice rules differ sharply. We check before we place, not after.

Programmes

Priced by article, because that is how it is used.

Most matters do not need a particular masthead. They need enough credible, factual coverage that the paragraph your client’s customers keep finding is no longer the only thing they find. Every article is published as editorial, without a paid label, wherever the publication’s own policy allows it.

Articles

$1,500

$500 per article · live within 7 days

Drafted by us, in your client’s voice
Revised until your firm approves every line
Placed as editorial, no paid label where permitted
Live links to you as each goes up
Not published on the agreed date, not invoiced

Discuss this

Articles

$2,250

$450 per article · live within 10 days

Everything in the three-article programme
Sequenced over two weeks, not dumped in a day
A holding statement drafted and held in reserve
Media enquiries handled on your behalf
One-page summary for your client’s board

Discuss this

Articles

$3,500

$350 per article · live within 21 days

Everything in the five-article programme
Both judgment-day statements written in advance
Coverage across two or more language markets
Spokesperson preparation before any interview
Ninety days of post-judgment follow-through

Discuss this

When the masthead matters

Some matters need a title your client’s market already trusts.

Where a specific publication is the point — Law & Crime (DA 80), Lawyers Weekly, the US state law journals, lawnews.co.uk, or national business press such as Business Insider and MSN — those are quoted individually at the price published on this site, plus the same drafting and approval work included above. Nothing is marked up behind an enquiry form. You can price the whole thing yourself before you call us.

See every title and price

For the length of the matter

Counsel during proceedings

A named contact who knows the file. All press enquiries taken and logged. Two approved statements a month. A judgment-day plan kept current as dates move. Placements billed separately at the published rate, so you are paying us for judgement, not for links.

from $2,500/month

Three-month minimum · by application

Enquire in confidence

Plainly stated

What we will not do, whatever the fee.

Every item below has been asked of us. Saying no here saves both of us a fortnight.

×Publish anything intended to reach or influence a judge, a juror or a witness
×Assert an allegation against the other side that no court has found proved
×Handle privileged, confidential, disclosure-only or unlawfully obtained material
×Touch an active criminal matter before a jury, or anything under a reporting restriction
×Name a complainant, a minor, or anyone holding statutory anonymity
×Promise you an outcome. We guarantee publication. Nobody can honestly guarantee the rest

Questions we are asked

Before you instruct anyone.

What is litigation PR?

Litigation PR is the practice of managing public communication about a legal dispute while it is running. It covers holding statements, media enquiry handling, correcting inaccurate reporting, communicating public filings and judgments, spokesperson preparation and post-judgment recovery. It is addressed to a client’s commercial audience — customers, investors, lenders, staff, regulators — and not to the tribunal deciding the matter. It is also called litigation communications, dispute communications or legal case PR.

Is it legal to run PR during an ongoing court case?

In most jurisdictions, yes, provided the communication is factual, does not create a risk of prejudicing the proceedings, and complies with any reporting restrictions. The limits differ sharply. In England and Wales the Contempt of Court Act 1981 imposes strict liability once proceedings are active. In the United States, courts are far more permissive but ABA Model Rule 3.6 restricts what an attorney may say about a pending matter. We check the position in the relevant jurisdiction before any placement, and we take instructions only through the law firm.

Can you publish an article about a case that has not been decided?

Yes, if it is confined to matters already on the public record — the fact of the claim, the parties, filings already lodged, rulings already handed down — and to your client’s own approved position. What we will not do is publish untested allegations about the other side, material obtained through disclosure, or anything framed to influence the outcome.

How much does litigation PR cost?

Article programmes are $1,500 for three, $2,250 for five and $3,500 for ten, which works out at $350 to $500 per article including drafting, your firm’s approval cycle and placement. Named publications are quoted at the price published on this site. An ongoing retainer for the length of a matter starts at $2,500 a month with a three-month minimum.

How fast can something be published?

A holding statement can be live in one to three days. Editorial articles typically run in seven to twenty-one days depending on the volume and the titles. If a judgment date is known, we work backwards from it and have both outcomes written and approved before the day.

Will the articles be tagged as sponsored?

Not where the publication’s own policy permits editorial placement, which covers the large majority of the titles used in these programmes. Where a publication requires a paid or contributor label, we tell you before placing rather than after, and you decide.

Who instructs you — the law firm or the client?

The firm. A communications consultant engaged directly by the client can place legal professional privilege over those communications at risk in England and in several other jurisdictions. Instructed through the firm under your retainer, that risk is managed in the ordinary way. We work to your conflict checks and your approval chain.

What if the case settles or the article is no longer wanted?

Anything not yet published is not invoiced. Litigation moves, settles and collapses without notice, and a programme that cannot stop is no use to you.

Where else to look.

Remove an articleWhen the problem is a page that already exists
Government & Diplomatic PRInstitutions, delegations and officials
International Expansion PRCross-border deals and market entry
The full media list2,125 publications, every price shown

Begin

Tell us what is already public. We will tell you what can properly be said about it.

No obligation, no file opened, and nothing written down as a client until you say so. One reply, from a person, usually within a few hours.

Speak to us in confidence
office@digital-pr.ai

We are a communications firm, not a law firm. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and we act on your instructions and your judgement as to what may properly be published.

You can win the case
and still lose the client.