Amstrad Action Hits Glitch

Amstrad?s court case against Western Digital took a further twist this week after the disk drive manufacturer?s law firm, which has been employed by the firm since 1991, was disqualified from the case.

Amstrad was seeking $186 million in damages from Western Digital for supplying faulty disk drives. Western Digital has denied the charges.

Last week Amstrad won $57.5 million in a similar case against Seagate Technology.

But a Californian judge has ruled that Western Digital?s lawyer, Irell & Manella, was subject to a conflict of interest because it had hired a specialist consultancy that had already been approached by Amstrad. The consultancy had seen confidential information from Amstrad that the judge ruled could have been used against the company in the case.

Both Western Digital and Irell & Manella have requested that the judge reconsider the disqualification. The case is due to start on 30 June.

In a statement, Western Digital claimed it would continue to fight the Amstrad case even if its lawyers were disqualified. The company maintained that it would have enough time to set up another team of lawyers.

J Last week Amstrad sold its consumer electronics business to Betacom for #6.5 million. Included in the sale were Amstrad branded TVs, Fidelity hi-fis and Sinclair computers.

The sale leaves Amstrad little more than a holding company. It holds a majority stake in Betacom and modem vendor Dataflex, as well as owning direct PC vendor Viglen.