Cases of Note

Prince Harry's dubious phone hacking case against the Daily Mail was conducted so egregiously that he and his fellow claimants should be made to pay a substantial part of Associated's legal costs, the High Court heard today. The suit filed in October 2022 alleged widespread unlawful information gathering, including phone hacking and bugging. The trial was pursued in a "cavalier" and "highly unreasonable and inexcusable" fashion, the Mail's publisher argued. Some aspects of the three-month trial earlier this year were 'not only unfair' to accused journalists but were in "breach" of the judge's repeated warnings to the claimants' lawyers about how the trial should be conducted, it said. In a resounding victory and a landmark ruling on July 7, the Mail's journalists were exonerated when allegations they hacked, bugged and blagged to get stories were thrown out in full. Now the High Court is considering who should foot the bill ...