Well, Prince Harry and his lawyers had a very busy January! With judgments in two claims, and a huge amount of press coverage, the question of legal costs has rarely been so high profile! We look in particular at the costs budget issues and hearing in Prince Harry’s claim against the Daily Mail’s publishers.
| Settlement in the claim against The Sun’s publishers
Last week Prince Harry settled his claim against the publishers of The Sun newspaper. He is rumoured to have received an eight-figure settlement. Further, the publishers made a “full and unequivocal apology” for intrusion into his private life.
The next question for the parties will be how much the publishers will pay of Harry’s legal costs. The papers are estimating costs of around £10 million, which, from my experience, is probably not far off.
| Costs in the claim against The Daily Mail’s publishers
Prince Harry is also one of seven Claimants taking legal action against the Daily Mail publishers (Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL)). At the end of last year, the lawyers were in front of the High Court for them to make a costs management order. This is the court ordering what is a reasonable amount for each of the parties to spend on dealing with the case. The judgment was published last week.
The two sides in the ongoing and hotly contested dispute had proposed to spend more than £38.8 million combined. Prince Harry and the Claimants combined had a suggested figure of £18.7 million in their costs budget.
However, two High Court Judges, Judge Cook and Mr Justice Nicklin, said they “had little difficulty concluding that such sums were manifestly excessive and therefore disproportionate”.
The Court allowed £4.1 million for the Claimants and £4.5 million for ANL. Of course, this is substantially lower than the sums that both parties are expected to spend should this matter reach trial. However, this will be a hard limit on what the winning party can recover from the losing party.
| What is reasonable?
The figures claimed by both parties are reminiscent of the sums in comments made by previous celebrities who have been involved in similar phone hacking scandal cases. For example, Huge Grant (who was another Claimant in the Sun case) said that if he lost at trial he would have to pay the enormous legal costs for both sides.
Additionally, in the Prince Harry settlement against the Sun, it was suggested that part of the reason for the settlement prior to the trial commencement was in part due to the potential costs of trial of £10 million.
So, these cases highlight the potential extreme costs that these cases can attract. However, Judge Cooks said that the legal claims were “really rather simple”, and the Claimant would either succeed or not and the remedy on the issue was clear.
He continued,
“This is not to downplay the complexity of the factual issues that may arise in the litigation, but it puts these claims in the context of the sorts of litigation that come before the courts.
The fact that these claimants are well-known, and the litigation high profile, does not affect the issues that must be resolved”.
So, once again the Court has reiterated that any costs management must be tied closely to the facts of the matter and not the potential background noise that surrounds a case.
Solicitors regularly instruct our costs team to prepare costs budgets and deal with costs management hearings. For more information on how we can work with your firm, please call us on 0800 988 7756. Or contact Simon Miller direct.
