British Chiropractic Association v Simon Singh

AndyD said:
*If anyone has a contact address for them, please tell them they've written "complimentary" where they mean "complementary". Alternative therapy is rarely free.
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Email their editorial. John Pickerell will probably get it, if not Wilson. Both are extremely approachable people and I'm sure would appreciate the correction.

Athon

ETA:
BillyJoe said:
They have already altered the spelling to "complementary".
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Ah. There you go. :)
 
Hope? I'm not sure why Jack feels the statement "All in all, I cannot see any realistic prospect of a successful appeal" doesn't constitute hopelessness - unless he's used to seeing more strident dismissals than this.

My personal, ill-informed, legally-ignorant suspicion is that the best the sceptical community should expect is that any on-going appeal/trial process will deliver opportunities for increased scrutiny of chiropractic. The best Simon should probably expect is an increase in sales of current and future books, hopefully enough to recoup any costs.

But that's expectation, not hope. Hope is for a legal win to come rushing out of left field or, at least, for the BCA to blink first and pull out of the suit. I'm sure they could claim to "have made their point" which was "supported" by the courts. After all, they already claimed to have been "vindicated" after the preliminary ruling. If they'd seen the scrutiny that was coming their way, they might have pulled out there and then.
 
I agree with AndyD, either the BCA will blink (but why should they?) and agree to some deal or Simon would probably lose in court. Cannot see Simon winning anything. But the best result would be for the judge to retire...

I do agree the BCA has lost a lot of its reputation. Only hope that translates to a lose of business.

I am a nobody, I make predictions that are often wrong.
 
I think that the BCA should blink. I don't see how they have anything to gain from the proceedings, even if they win. The president apparently believes that chiropractic clients don't care about the trial one bit and it's pretty certain that a win for the BCA isn't going to see sceptics suddenly changing their minds - and the dismantling of any "evidence" would likely continue.

Simon, on the other hand, has much to "gain" if he can either win, or at least not lose - in my ignorant opinion.

Simon might well stand a chance in the Euro Court of Human Rights - based on the Quackometer's recent post.

It's all so subjective (it seems) that it's impossible to predict the outcome - which is why JoK said early on that no one should enter a defamation trial (plaintiff or defendant) without an assumption that they will lose.
 
AndyD said:
Hope?
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Yes, but as I said, only a glimmer, and it's based on this part of Jack of Kent's most recent blog post:
"All in all, I cannot see any realistic prospect of a successful appeal."

[Jack of Kent] Please note it is not stated that the application for PTA was hopeless; so this means that it is still open for Simon Singh to bite again at the cherry of PTA with an oral hearing.

These brief reasons are also perhaps interesting in what they do not explicitly address. For example, there is nothing here expressly about the dishonesty point, that is that the High Court ruled that the words complained of alleged conscious dishonesty on the part of the British Chiropractic Association.

It may be that in any oral application for PTA there is still perhaps some chance of overturning the High Court's ruling on meaning.

http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2009/08/length-of-simon-singhs-skeleton-reasons.html
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AndyD said:
I think that the BCA should blink. I don't see how they have anything to gain from the proceedings, even if they win. The president apparently believes that chiropractic clients don't care about the trial one bit and it's pretty certain that a win for the BCA isn't going to see sceptics suddenly changing their minds - and the dismantling of any "evidence" would likely continue.
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On the other hand, if the BCA does, in fact "blink", skeptics might get even more publicity for the perceived victory. Since the BCA still has all the odds for winning the case, it is only logical that they will continue to the end. They will have the publicity against them in either case, but at least they will not lose face, and they can always claim to have a court decision on their side, when mr. Singh is forced to pay damages plus all their expenses.
 
rjh01 said:
But the best result would be for the judge to retire...
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Based on his rulings in this and in other cases, the best result would be for Justice Eady to be disbarred. The man is not competent to do his job.
 
steenkh said:
On the other hand, if the BCA does, in fact "blink", skeptics might get even more publicity for the perceived victory. Since the BCA still has all the odds for winning the case, it is only logical that they will continue to the end. They will have the publicity against them in either case, but at least they will not lose face, and they can always claim to have a court decision on their side, when mr. Singh is forced to pay damages plus all their expenses.
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Drop the case and there is a good chance this will have blown over within a couple of months - they will be able to claim the moral high ground about no wanting to bankrupt Singh etc.

Continue and this could rumble on for years, the gamble for the BCA is, will the Bloggers and the Media continue to ramp up the pressure until it eventually effects business?
 
New paper from Edzard Ernst:

Spinal manipulation for asthma: A systematic review of randomised clinical trials

Some clinicians believe that spinal manipulation is an effective treatment for asthma. The aim of this systematic review was to critically evaluate the evidence for or against this claim. Four electronic databases were searched without language restrictions from their inceptions to September 2008. Bibliographies and departmental files were hand-searched. The methodological quality of all included studies was assessed with the Jadad score. Only randomised clinical trials of spinal manipulation as a treatment of asthma were included. Three studies met these criteria. All of them were of excellent methodological quality (Jadad score 5) and all used sham-manipulation as the control intervention. None of the studies showed that real manipulation was more effective than sham-manipulation in improving lung function or subjective symptoms. It is concluded that, according to the evidence of the most rigorous studies available to date, spinal manipulation is not an effective treatment for asthma.

Respir Med. 2009 Jul 29
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...nel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
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Another systematic review due out soon:

“Chiropractic spinal manipulation for infant colic: a systematic review of randomised clinical trials" Int J Clin Pract 2009.

Meanwhile:
STOP THE CAMPAIGN - Edinburgh City Council has got evidence that chiropractic is an effective treatment for colic:
http://adventuresinnonsense.blogspot.com/2009/08/stop-campaign-edinburgh-city-council.html

Follow-up post:
http://adventuresinnonsense.blogspot.com/2009/08/quest-for-dr-paul-homokys-secret.html
 
I can confirm today that I have applied for a hearing to ask the Court of Appeal to reconsider its recent denial of permission.
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A bit of a surprise? Looks like Simon and his team are intending to take this all the way to ECHR if necessary.

Definitely squeaky-bum time for the BCA methinks!
 
catbasket said:
A bit of a surprise?
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As Simon says, the appeal will not cost a lot of money compared with what he has already spent and only another two months of his time (the appeal is set down for 14th Oct), and he could have his costs paid if he ultimately wins.
 
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