Financial Vindication For The Mail
Prince Harry and fellow claimants must pay initial £9.5m to Daily Mail after judge rules their doomed hacking case was 'unreasonable to a high degree'The Duke of Sussex, Baroness Lawrence, Sir Elton John and the four others have seven days to pay the first £9,544,355, the High Court ordered.Mr Justice Nicklin granted a rare ‘indemnity order’ obliging the claimants to bear the brunt of the costs of their disastrous legal action. Such orders are usually only granted in cases where a judge believes there has been bad conduct.The judge said: ‘The claims – and the manner in which they were brought, pleaded, pursued, maintained and publicly advanced – involved a combination of circumstances and conduct which took the litigation outside the ordinary and reasonable conduct of civil proceedings.’A spokesman for the Mail's publisher, Associated Newspapers, said: 'His judgment is a devastating critique of an attempt to destroy a newspaper and the reputations of its journalists, editors and executives.'A spokesman for the Mail's publisher, Associated Newspapers, said: 'His judgment is a devastating critique of an attempt to destroy a newspaper and the reputations of its journalists, editors and executives.'The judgment means Associated Newspapers is free to seek a much larger proportion of its costs from the case waged by Harry – who once styled his campaign against newspapers as ‘slaying dragons’ – and the other claimants. They also include Sir Elton’s husband David Furnish, model Elizabeth Hurley, actress Sadie Frost and former Lib Dem minister Sir Simon Hughes.It is a costly blow to the seven claimants, whose insurance policy only covers them for £16.2million.And it does not include their own legal costs, which are thought likely to be at least £20million, although it is understood their lawyers acted, at least in part, on a ‘no-win, no-fee’ basis.After winning the case, the publisher applied for its legal costs to be paid on the fuller ‘indemnity basis’ because Harry’s side had pursued the high-profile case in a ‘cavalier’ and ‘highly unreasonable and inexcusable’ fashion. After comprehensively losing their case last month, the duke and Baroness Lawrence lashed out in an extraordinary public statement that accused the judge of bias and called his ruling ‘a complete and obvious whitewash’.https://mol.im/a/16067837I bet that Harry and Doreen Lawrence (why the hell was she made a Baroness🤷🏻♀️) now wish they’d kept their gobs shut. Especially so Lawrence whose only feelings towards the Mail should only have been those of deep gratitude for the Newspaper’s relentless campaign that brought her Son’s killers to justice.There is now speculation that the journalists whose reputations were trashed by the false claims, may now personally sue the claimants for reputational damages.
Sue Hammond ● 1d8 Comments ● 4h