Is the maddie fund.... now a secret fund

[misty]

I really wouldn’t encourage Faithlilly to judge, you know what the verdict’s likely to be...

For the purpose of debate, I'd like her to pick the bones out of it.

[misty]

IMO
They already had sufficient funds to pay the PI's due in no small way to the backing received from wealthy benefactors. Perhaps they felt the old proverb "never look a gift horse in the mouth" was appropriate in their situation. What would you have recommended - refusing financial assistance when their family life remained at stake?

[faithlilly]

Yes.

Then why didn’t they?

[G-Unit]

The judge of the first instance said the McCanns suffering wasn't caused by Amaral's book etc., but it had an effect on them. She awarded them 500,000 Euros on the strength of that.

[faithlilly]

IMO
They already had sufficient funds to pay the PI's due in no small way to the backing received from wealthy benefactors. Perhaps they felt the old proverb "never look a gift horse in the mouth" was appropriate in their situation. What would you have recommended - refusing financial assistance when their family life remained at stake?

At the time they launched the libel litigation they had no way of knowing how much money they would need to fund an ongoing investigation so to say that they had sufficient funds is just a nonsense.

They also had no idea how long the goodwill of wealthy benefactors like Brian Kennedy would last.

What would I have recommended? I would have recommended that the fund money should be used to search for their child.

[misty]

At the time they launched the libel litigation they had no way of knowing how much money they would need to fund an ongoing investigation so to say that they had sufficient funds is just a nonsense.

They also had no idea how long the goodwill of wealthy benefactors like Brian Kennedy would last.

What would I have recommended? I would have recommended that the fund money should be used to search for their child.

At the time of launching the litigation they had no idea if Madeleine would be found or just how protracted the whole legal process would be. How did Amaral plan to fund his (extended) defence, given his knowledge of Portugal's justice system & case history mainly leaning in favour of the defamed back in 2009?

[faithlilly]

At the time of launching the litigation they had no idea if Madeleine would be found or just how protracted the whole legal process would be. How did Amaral plan to fund his (extended) defence, given his knowledge of Portugal's justice system & case history mainly leaning in favour of the defamed back in 2009?

Again the McCanns would have had no idea how long they would need to fund a private investigation. As parents surely making sure that the money needed for that was there would be their main priority?

As to Amaral he didn’t chose to fight the McCanns, he was forced to.

[Mr Gray]

Again the McCanns would have had no idea how long they would need to fund a private investigation. As parents surely making sure that the money needed for that was there would be their main priority?

As to Amaral he didn’t chose to fight the McCanns, he was forced to.

if you attack someone as amara did don't be surprised if you have to fight them

[faithlilly]

if you attack someone as amara did don't be surprised if you have to fight them

Yet again would the parents have sued if they had had to fund it themselves ?

[misty]

Again the McCanns would have had no idea how long they would need to fund a private investigation. As parents surely making sure that the money needed for that was there would be their main priority?

As to Amaral he didn’t chose to fight the McCanns, he was forced to.

Given the defamation laws at the time & Amaral's breach of his duty of reserve, I assume the legal advice the parents received indicated that they would be successful & rather than drain the search fund, any award would actually enhance it.

Amaral DID choose to fight the McCanns IMO; at least 80% of his book/documentary was dedicated to the  investigation of them.

[slartibartfast]

Given the defamation laws at the time & Amaral's breach of his duty of reserve, I assume the legal advice the parents received indicated that they would be successful & rather than drain the search fund, any award would actually enhance it.

Amaral DID choose to fight the McCanns IMO; at least 80% of his book/documentary was dedicated to the  investigation of them.

A bit of a shock to them IMO.

[Carana]

Again the McCanns would have had no idea how long they would need to fund a private investigation. As parents surely making sure that the money needed for that was there would be their main priority?

As to Amaral he didn’t chose to fight the McCanns, he was forced to.

"Forced to"?

[misty]

A bit of a shock to them IMO.

More than a bit I would think, given the ease with which the 3rd arguido, not cleared by the same archiving report, managed to obtain substantial libel damages from the UK press who'd published defamatory material against him after using the same source - the PJ files.

[faithlilly]

Given the defamation laws at the time & Amaral's breach of his duty of reserve, I assume the legal advice the parents received indicated that they would be successful & rather than drain the search fund, any award would actually enhance it.

Amaral DID choose to fight the McCanns IMO; at least 80% of his book/documentary was dedicated to the  investigation of them.

Libel litigation is always a gamble. The McCanns would have known this.

[G-Unit]

It's a fact that the Fund isn't being as transparent as promised. If newspapers repeat damaging gossip, (which I think might be what you're referring to) they are still guilty of libel. It's true that there were derogatory comments in the files, it's not true that the comments were true.