David Irving sues for loss of archives

David Irving, the right-wing historian who was imprisoned in Austria for denying the Holocaust happened, is about to return to court. This time, however, he is on the attack. Irving is suing his former lawyers Howard Kennedy, solicitor Peter Laskey, and legal executive Peter Ling in a dispute over his £750,000 Mayfair flat and for the loss of his historical archives.
In court papers, Irving alleges that his lawyers failed to carry out his instructions to deal with a possession order issued against the property in Duke Street following his unsuccessful libel action against the American academic Deborah Lipstadt. Irving had sued her for libel after she accused him of being a Holocaust denier. He was subsequently arrested during a visit to Austria, where it is a crime to glorify and identify with the German Nazi Party. After a trial in Vienna, he served a prison sentence from February to December 2006.
The legal action against Lipstadt cost Irving £3m in legal fees and ultimately resulted in him filing for bankruptcy. Even worse, at least from his point of view, when the flat was re-possessed he also lost his historical archive, which he values at £500,000.
Irving, 70, maintains that his legal advisors failed to tell him "in a timely manner" of their omission [that he was in danger of losing the Duke Street apartment], which would have allowed him to take action to save his home and historical papers. While he values the loss of his possessions and archives at half a million £500,000 and also wants damages for grief and distress, he has limited his claim for damages to £300,000.


http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/people,1306,david-irving-sues-for-loss-of-archives,41724