Prince Harry and Other Claimants Hit With Large Legal Bill in Mail Newspaper Lawsuit

2 min read

Last month, Prince Harry and six other public figures lost a high-profile and bitterly fought legal battle with the publishers of the Mail newspapers. And today the court has ordered that the losing claimants pay an initial £9.54 million (almost $13 million) by 4 p.m on August 28.

Costs in the case were awarded on an indemnity basis aside from where orders had already been made. Costs being awarded on an indemnity basis is unusual and means that costs do not have to be considered proportionate to be recoverable. “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,” the court summarized of its decision.

Associated Newspapers has said its costs in defending the case are approximately £34.5 million (approximately $47 million). The court did not impose a cap on how much could be recovered but made no decision beyond the initial payment. The full costs recoverable will be decided between the parties or by a costs judge. It does not mean that all of Associate’s costs will automatically be recoverable, but an indemnity order is more favorable to that possibility.

Prince Harry did not respond to the decision today. The verdict in the case was announced on July 7, the same day that Harry made a public appearance on his most recent trip to the UK.

“The Claimants failed to prove their pleaded allegations of UIG,” a summary of the judgement read (UIG is short for unlawful information gathering). “The Court rejected the attempt to prove the claims by broad inference where there remained a legitimate and realistic possible lawful source pathway, or where the article-specific evidence did not prove that the relevant information must have been obtained unlawfully…The claims are therefore dismissed.”

Harry’s case concerned 14 stories from 2001 to 2013 that he claimed were the subject of unlawful information gathering by journalists at the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday. He was joined in his legal action by six other public figures; UK national hero Baroness Doreen Lawrence, actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, musician Elton John and his husband David Furnish, and former politician Simon Hughes.

A spokesperson for Associated Newspapers described the verdict as “"a magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail’s journalism.”