On Wednesday and Thursday, Britain’s High Court had a hearing about the Daily Mail’s legal costs as they “defended” themselves against a civil lawsuit brought by Prince Harry, Elton John, David Furnish, Baroness Lawrence, Sadie Frost and Elizabeth Hurley. The judge in the case, Justice Nicklin, not only dismissed every claim brought by the litigants, he’s also the one in charge of determining how much the litigants will now have to “pay” the Mail/ANL. The Mail’s lawyers have gotten a lot of space in the British media to argue that Harry (and apparently Harry alone) must pay tens of millions of dollars to the Mail! The Mail asked the court to order the litigants to pay an upfront tab of $13 million, but the Mail also told the court that their costs exceeded £34 million. I wondered if we were going to get a decision about the money this week. We are not. Don’t believe all of those dumbass headlines. Nicklin isn’t issuing his judgment on the money until August 17.
Prince Harry and six other prominent figures must now await a decision on how large an initial costs payment they will be required to hand over to the publisher, with a ruling anticipated in the week commencing August 17.
The group are confronting a legal costs bill running into the millions after their High Court claim against the publisher of the Daily Mail was thrown out earlier this month.
The Duke of Sussex, alongside Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Sadie Frost, Liz Hurley and Sir Simon Hughes, had brought allegations of unlawful information-gathering against Associated Newspapers Limited.
ANL vigorously contested the accusations throughout an 11-week trial in London.
On July 7, Mr Justice Nicklin ruled against all seven claimants, dismissing every case.
The matter returned to the High Court this week for two days of argument over who should bear the financial burden.
ANL’s total legal costs were revealed to be in excess of £34 million, a figure Mr Justice Nicklin described as “unprecedented” for a media law dispute at High Court level.
Just to make it clear, the litigants are insured, collectively, for about £14.1 million. That’s one of the numbers to keep your eye on – if Nicklin rules that the litigants must pay in excess of £14.1 million, that’s when it starts coming out of pocket for Elton, Harry and the rest of them. Do we honestly think that Nicklin is going to issue a ruling for £34 million or thereabouts? I don’t know. Nicklin is clearly a creature of the tabloids, and it would not surprise me at all if he decides to “make an example” out of these people who dared to sue the almighty Daily Fail. That’s the thing though – I wonder if Prince Harry’s bold “whitewash” statement was putting Nicklin on notice? Maybe that’s just a pipe dream.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
