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Fans of Napoli football club, in Italy, do not expect to beat champions Inter Milan. But that is just on the pitch. In a law court victory can more easily be achieved.

A court in Naples recently ordered Inter to pay a Napoli fan €1,500 compensation for “existential damage” caused by banners displayed during a match. The banners described Naples as the “sewer of Italy”, an insult referring to a chronic refuse crisis that had left rubbish rotting in the streets of Naples.

Provocative abuse was displayed on other banners at the match, which Inter won 2-1, including “Ciao cholera sufferers!” and “Neapolitans have tuberculosis”. Inter fans also sang offensive chants. Raffaele Di Monda, representing the Napoli fan (identified only as GDB), argued that the concerted and vindictive abuse made his client feel “indignant and deeply hurt”. In addition to damages, the court ordered Inter to pay Mr GDB’s costs, making the courtroom contest 2-0 to Napoli.

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Cases in which it has proved that a whole class of people, such as Neapolitans, has been slandered are not common. However, one group you would want to think twice about before insulting is lawyers. In Scotland in 1781, a newspaper published an article referring indirectly to the Worshipful Society of Solicitors as the “Worshipful Society of Chaldeans [magicians], Cadies [errand boys] or Running-Stationers . . .” The Worshipful Society of Solicitors drafted a writ faster than you can say abracadabra.

James Boswell represented the paper’s editor. He argued that no compensation should be paid to the solicitors because they had not lost any clients or fee income since the article was published, which meant they had suffered no financial harm. Turning to the alleged injured reputation of solicitors, he asked, rather mercilessly: “What is their reputation but an instrument of getting money?”

Of the various venues in which rudeness about lawyers can be uttered, a law court is not a good choice. The court awarded damages to the insulted solicitors and the newspaper editor had to pick up all their decidedly worshipful legal costs.

Professor Gary Slapper is Director of the Centre for Law at The Open University

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