Prince Harry Elton John legal costs have risen to an initial £9.54m after Mr Justice Nicklin ordered Prince Harry and six other claimants to pay following their failed privacy case. The ruling puts the seven claimants on the hook for a potential total bill of £34.5m, with payment due by Friday of next week.
Mr Justice Nicklin said a claim for more than £34 million was excessive and described the way the claims were presented as “unreasonable to a high degree.” He also said he had “decided not to impose a ceiling on Associated's recoverable costs,” leaving the publisher able to seek far more than the amount agreed before trial.
Mr Justice Nicklin ruling
The judge dismissed the claims of unlawful information-gathering on 7 July. On Friday, he made an exceptional order on legal costs and said the case was rare enough to justify costs far above the figure the parties had agreed before trial.
Prince Harry, Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Sir Simon Hughes, Sadie Frost, Liz Hurley and Baroness Doreen Lawrence are the seven claimants affected by the order. Associated Newspapers Limited can now seek up to £34.5m that it said it spent defending the case.
£16.2m insurance cover
The claimants had insurance to cover up to £16.2m of Associated Newspapers' costs if they lost. On the figures set out in the ruling, that leaves the Duke and the others facing about £18m beyond the insurance cover if the full bill is pursued.
Mr Justice Nicklin said the absence of any voluntary withdrawal of serious allegations was “striking.” He added: “That matters. Serious allegations of criminality or grave impropriety cannot properly be left hanging over individuals in that way.”
He also wrote: “If a party no longer advances such an allegation, or no longer has a proper evidential basis for advancing it, the allegation should be withdrawn clearly and in terms.” In the same judgment, he said the claimants’ failure to do so was “not ordinary forensic judgment” and was “not a proper or disciplined way to deal with serious allegations.”
2 October appeal deadline
The Duke of Sussex and the other six claimants have until 2 October to attempt to launch an appeal. If they do not appeal, the £9.54m payment deadline next week becomes the immediate financial test, with the larger costs order still looming behind it.
Associated Newspapers Limited called the ruling “a devastating critique of an attempt to destroy a newspaper and the reputations of its journalists, editors and executives.” The costs decision now sits apart from the lost privacy case itself and turns the fight into a separate dispute over how much the claimants must pay.
