Do Russian Oligarchs Have a Secret Weapon in London’s Libel Lawyers?

The government attempted to rebalance the scales with the passage of the Defamation Act of 2013. It required plaintiffs to show a connection to the country in order to file in it, and stipulated that plaintiffs demonstrate they suffered “serious harm.”

If this was supposed to embolden the media, it did not work, said Andrew Scott, an associate professor at the London School of Economics, who conferred with the Ministry of Justice as it drafted the law. The standards needed to win a defamation case were raised, he noted, but nothing was done to address the cost of the process. With journalists and publishers still facing the prospect of hugely expensive legal fees incurred battling angry oligarchs, there was little change.

“Me and a colleague at the time wrote that the only ones who are going to benefit from this new law are lawyers and tyrants,” Mr. Scott added.

This is why veteran reporters have finely honed intuitions about how to avoid trouble.

“In the last couple weeks I’ve had a dozen editors ask me to write about Roman Abramovich, and I’ve had to reply that I have never looked at him because it’s never occurred to me that I’d get anything published about him,” Mr. Bullough said. “You become quite good at navigating the rules. It’s a very effective form of censorship.”

So far, there has been no legal blowback from “Butler to the World,” which was published on March 10. The statute of limitations for libel cases is one year, and it isn’t unusual for oligarchs to sue as that deadline approaches. The cases against “Putin’s People,” for instance, landed as its first anniversary approached.

The book was never pulled from stores, but battling the cases cost HarperCollins nearly $2 million in legal fees. Ultimately, some suits were tossed out, others settled, and in December, HarperCollins reached an agreement in which changes were made to the text, including additional denials from representatives of Mr. Abramovich. HarperCollins called the agreement fair, in part because no damages were paid to Mr. Abramovich.

The publisher and Ms. Belton did issue an apology, stating that certain aspects of the book were insufficiently clear. As part of the agreement, the publisher also made a charitable contribution for an error relating to Mr. Abramovich’s ownership of the oil giant Sibneft.