No one emerges from a court fight looking clean

The case of Johnny Depp vs the Sun, heard over recent weeks at the High Court in London, certainly gives fresh life to the old warnings about dirty linen and its public laundering. Whatever the results, I would be surprised if it didn’t provoke others to think again about the wisdom of reverting to the law. The influencers formerly known as the Sussexes, for instance, must be wondering whether their forthcoming legal case will result in them solely being showered with praise.

Of course one has sympathy for famous people who feel that they have been badly portrayed. It is unpleasant to read nasty things about yourself in the newspapers. Especially if you have spent years reading largely pleasant things, carefully placed there by yourself or your PR team. Still, the urge should be resisted, and almost all precedent — even before the Depp trial — shows why.

Unless you have been falsely accused of a crime such as murder, taking legal action is always like stepping in quicksand. The absence of this realisation is one reason why the young and unworldly imagine that the courts are a good place to settle their complaints. The misunderstanding comes from lack of experience, lack of knowledge of how much can go wrong and zero understanding of the fact that even exoneration leaves some residue of the thing of which you were accused.

Earlier this decade, during one of their frequent leadership contests, a man called John Rees-Evans stood to be that week’s Ukip leader. Several years before, he had made a joke about a gay donkey trying to rape his horse. The joke was not golden, and the candidate apologised when it resurfaced.