Prince Harry and Six Others Ordered to Pay £9.54m After Losing Daily Mail Privacy Case

The UK High Court has dismissed all seven claims brought against Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), publisher of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline. The claimants alleged that private information about them had been obtained through unlawful methods, including phone hacking and the use of private investigators.

The immediate consequence is a £9.54 million interim payment toward ANL’s legal costs. The order is substantial, but it is not the final amount the claimants may ultimately have to pay.

What the High Court decided

The seven claimants were:

• Prince Harry
• Sir Elton John
• David Furnish
• Baroness Doreen Lawrence
• Elizabeth Hurley
• Sadie Frost
• Sir Simon Hughes, the former Liberal Democrat MP

Following an 11-week trial, Mr Justice Nicklin dismissed every claim. The court’s conclusion was that the claimants had failed to prove that ANL or its journalists had unlawfully obtained information about them. The judgment emphasized that suspicion, even where understandable, was not enough to establish unlawful information gathering.

The allegations included phone hacking, blagging, surveillance and other covert methods. The costs judgment described the claims as weak and speculative and found that the way they were pursued was highly unreasonable.

Why the costs order is unusual

The judge ordered costs on an indemnity basis for the proceedings. In broad terms, that can allow the successful party to recover a greater proportion of its reasonable legal costs than under the ordinary standard basis. The judgment treated the case as exceptional because of the weakness of the claims and the conduct of the litigation.

That does not mean the claimants automatically owe ANL every pound the publisher says it spent. ANL has reported legal costs of about £34.5 million, while reports put the claimants’ after-the-event insurance cover at approximately £16.2 million. The difference has been described as a potential shortfall of more than £18 million.