Ashley Liew v Soh Rui Yong - The End of a Marathon?

By Mark Teng, Executive Director (Profile) and Ng Weng Sun, Legal Associate

After 10 full days of trial, one too many interlocutory hearings (e.g. Recusal Application & the Appeal), and even a last-minute change in solicitors, the defamation saga between the marathon runners Ashley Liew (“Ashley”) and Soh Rui Yong (“Soh”) is finally in its penultimate lap.

The trial drew to a close on 8 June 2021 and this is a brief summary of the last 2 days of trial (held on 7 and 8 June 2021).

On 7 June 2021, which is incidentally the 6th year anniversary since the 2015 SEA Games Marathon, Mr Soh Seow Hong (“Mr Soh”), the father of Soh, was cross-examined by our Mr Mark Teng and re-examined by Soh’s new/original (depending on how you look at it) counsel – Mr Eugene Thuraisingam.

On 8 June 2021, the final day of trial, Mr Madankumar Balakrishnan, a friend and training partner of Soh was cross-examined by Mr Lim Tianjun of That.Legal LLC (“TJ”) (Profile).

TJ is That.® junior counsel who had been assisting in this iconic case since the starting line. Having gained Ashley’s trust as a strategic thinker, a detailed oriented lawyer, and an extremely hard worker, he earned the opportunity to conduct his 1st ever cross-examination and his 1st ever mainstream media mention.

We thank Ashley for helping our team fulfil the legal profession’s vision to “promote renewal of the Bar”. If you did not already know, this aspiration is enshrined in Rule 19(5) of the Supreme Court Practice Directions, which states that junior assisting counsels should be given “more opportunities for oral advocacy”.

We at That.Legal LLC wish to congratulate TJ on this momentous milestone, and we hope that he will look fondly upon this experience as he continues to grow into his own as, inter alia, an advocate of dispute resolution.

Although 8 June 2021 marks the official end of trial, the finishing line has yet to be reached. TJ will now have to pour through 10 days of trial transcripts, apply the law to the facts and draft the written closing submissions.   

The Learned District Judge Lee Li Choon has directed that parties submit their closing submissions in writing by 27 July 2021 and for reply submissions (if any) to be tendered by 10 August 2021. The final judgement will then be made sometime after that date.

As the case is technically still ongoing, we have refrained from commenting and/or reporting on the salient details of the same. However, upon release of the final judgement, we will upload another blog post that goes into the meat of this exciting saga.

So if you’re keen, watch this space, and follow That.Legal LLC on Linkedin, Facebook and Instagram.