This is a guest contribution by Jordan Atkins. Dr. Craig Wright has scored a point in his court battle against Peter McCormack, setting up an important trial that will help prove the former is Satoshi Nakamoto and created Bitcoin. This article first appeared on CoinGeek.com.

The first round in the Wright v McCormack libel bout appears to have gone to Craig Wright, as the U.K. High Court on Thursday rejected attempts by McCormack to delay discovery until after his strike-out application has been heard. Not only that, but the Master Dagnall, the High Court Master hearing the request, has ordered McCormack to pay £18,500 in costs to Wright regarding the application and subsequent hearing, CoinGeek has learned.

McCormack asked the Court to push back the deadline for discovery last week, intimating that he would be filing a late strike-out motion and asking that the discovery deadline be moved until after that application has been heard. Given the lawsuit has been on the books since April 2019, a strike-out motion this close to trial is unusual.

On July 30, the High Court resolutely rejected McCormack’s request to delay discovery. Master Dagnall remarked that to grant McCormack’s request to push discovery back so far would have delayed proceedings very close to the case’s May 4, 2021, trial date, noting that the timetable being proposed by McCormack would have the parties exchanging expert reports on the day the trial is scheduled to begin and calling the proposed delay ‘unsatisfactory’ and ‘not in the interests of justice.’