Prince Harry and other claimants are facing an “unprecedented” legal bill following the loss of their high-profile court case against Associated Newspapers, but they will have to wait to learn the final figure they’ll be paying.
On Thursday, judge Mr. Justice Nicklin said he would give his decision in a written ruling next month on the size of an initial payment the group, which includes Elizabeth Hurley, Sir Elton John and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, will make to Associated Newspapers Limited, in addition to how the costs will be assessed.
The size of the costs in the claims has been described by the judge as “unprecedented” for a High Court media law case. Associated Newspapers is said to have accumulated more than £34.5 million in legal costs.
Ahead of future hearings to determine the legal costs, the publisher of the Daily Mail has asked for more than £9.9 million as an interim payment, though lawyers for the group have said it should be just over £7.9 million.
In written submissions, Nicholas Bacon KC, for the group, called the amount of interim payment sought by ANL “manifestly excessive.”
The judge said the claimants would need to pay the interim payment on August 28. Prince Harry lost his case against Associated Newspapers earlier this month, while he was in London for engagements in the UK.
Prince Harry’s court case explained
The Duke of Sussex was part of a group of high-profile claimants who claimed alleged unlawful information gathering by Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers.
The claims were dismissed following an 11-week trial, with judge Mr Justice Nicklin concluding in his 436-page ruling that none of the group of seven had proven the allegations of unlawful information gathering. The judge said that he accepted the evidence given by Prince Harry at the trial in January, but concluded: “As with each of the claimants, Prince Harry has limited evidence to give on the contentious matters in dispute.”
Harry appeared visibly emotional in court in London on 21 January when he delivered his testimony. The royal delivered evidence in the case against the publisher of the Daily Mail, claiming “they have made my wife’s life an absolute misery.”
“It’s fundamentally wrong to put us through this again when all we wanted was an apology and accountability. It’s a horrible experience,” the royal, who spent around two-and-a-half hours answering questions from ANL’s barrister, said.
Prince Harry addresses the verdict
The Duke of Sussex broke his silence with a lengthy statement after his legal case was dismissed from the High Court.
“We came to Court seeking justice and accountability. But we have received neither,” the royal wrote in a statement on 8 July.
© WireImage“This judgment represents a complete reversal of the position which previous Judges have taken in relation to the hacking claims successfully brought against both News Group Newspapers and Mirror Group Newspapers (who were represented by, at the time, the Judge who made this decision).”
He continued: “Generic findings about various private investigators that were held by the Courts in these parallel claims to have carried out unlawful activity at the very same time in relation to similar stories and well-known individuals have been wholly ignored. The fact that this Court has chosen to dismiss them represents an inconsistency which is hard to understand or reconcile with common sense, or the evidence heard in the court room itself.”
Harry claimed it was a “complete and obvious whitewash, but sadly not altogether unexpected.”
“However, the lengths to which the Court has gone to exonerate the Mail is as shocking as it is totally unwarranted,” he added.
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