Jordan Shanks, aka Friendlyjordies, has been denied a trial by jury in the defamation case bought against him by NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro.
The headline-making case between Shanks and NSW Deputy Premier continues to become more interesting, with Shank’s legal team’s request to have the case be put before a jury denied.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported, that the judge presiding on the case, Justice Steven Rares, denied the request because of the pandemic and the complex nature of the case.
Justice Rares has already rejected two of Shank’s proposed defences.
Barilaro is currently suing Shanks for defamation after Shanks posted two videos about the Deputy Premier, Bruz and Secret Dictatorship on his popular youtube channel.
Barilaro is alleging the videos defamed him.
Arguably, Barilaro must have a busy legal team because he is also suing YouTube, which is owned by Google, for refusing Barilaro’s request to delete the videos.
Interestingly, Google also requested a trial by jury, which was simultaneously denied.
Despite Barilaro suing him, Shanks has still been active on his YouTube channel and even posted another video about Barilaro, titled, He Is Destroying Australia.
Naturally, the Friendlyjordies Twitter account which is presumedly run by Shanks, has already tweeted about the recent ruling.
John Barilaro's lawyer just spent today in court successfully arguing that I shouldn't be allowed a Jury trial because of the indefinite lockdown in NSW and ongoing threat of Covid…
Yet on the same day Barilaro publishes this article… pic.twitter.com/lht1EZSYlT
— friendlyjordies (@friendlyjordies) August 31, 2021
The Friendlyjordies account also retweeted multiple tweets about the ongoing case.
Barilaro v Shanks. On the upside…. Court accepted we can run a constitutional defence of implied freedom of political expression. And….. we are appealing against the ruling denying Jordan a truth defence because of parliamentary privilege.
— XD LAW (@XDlawyers) August 31, 2021
John Barilaro and his lawyers have just opposed a jury trial in the Federal Court. John is suing @friendlyjordies and Google but wants the case heard in front of one person, rather than a panel of his peers and voters.
Google and FJ both want a jury#auspol— 💧Michael West (@MichaelWestBiz) August 31, 2021
Meanwhile, the case is not likely to be held until next year.
