@Mark Shore: “Ball has made a habit of making libelous remarks attacking the motives, ethics, and professional qualifications of research scientists.”

With respect, that sounds like ‘blame the victim’ but, for the record, there have been a lot of lawsuits in climate science recently, and not just involving Tim Ball.  In addition to his SLAPP lawsuit against Tim Ball, Andrew Weaver also sued the National Post for alleged libel and was awarded $50K in damages.  The National Post appealed and, on 21 April this year, the BC Court of Appeal ordered a retrial.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_J._Weaver