LONDON.- A prince’s lawyer Harry yesterday -January 29- asked a judge to order the tabloid’s publisher Daily Mirror pay almost two million pounds ($2.5 million) for a fraction of the legal fees required to prove that Mirror Group Newspapers violated the monarch’s privacy by spying on his phone and using illegal means to discover scoops about him.
The Duke of Sussex was awarded £140,000 ($178,000) in damages last month after the judge found that phone hacking was widespread and common at Mirror newspapers and that executives at the publications covered it up.
The compensation was only a fraction of the sum he sought, but it represented a major victory in his legal crusade against the British media. It is one of several cases the prince has pending against tabloid publishers, after he opposed the royal family’s historic aversion to litigation. In June, Harry became the first senior member of the royal family to testify in court in more than a century.
Harry could return to court in 2025
Harry, 39, the estranged youngest son of King Charles III, is likely to return to court next year in similar lawsuits against publishers of The Sun y Daily Mail for accusations of illegal espionage. Recently, he dropped a defamation case against the publisher of the Mail after an unfavorable pretrial ruling.
Monday’s hearing was about legal fees from a lawsuit that involved Harry as one of four plaintiffs, including two members of the famous long-running British melodrama Coronation Streetwho accused Mirror of tapping their phones and hiring private investigators to illegally gather information about their lives.
The judge ruled that the privacy of the four plaintiffs had been violated, but dismissed the cases brought by actress Nikki Sanderson and Fiona Wightman, the ex-wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse, because they were filed too late. Actor Michael Turner was awarded £31,000 ($39,000).
Lawyer David Sherborne argued that his case was overwhelmingly successful and that his clients should be reimbursed for their legal fees, as Mirror presented a fundamentally dishonest case.
Mirror Group Response
Lawyer Roger Mallalieu of Mirror Group argued that he will only have to pay legal fees for the fractions of the claims he lost. He said Sanderson and Wightman must pay MGN’s costs for losing their cases. He argued that Turner should only receive costs up to the point where Mirror offered a settlement that would have exceeded what you were awarded at trial and you would have to pay your costs beyond that.
Judge Timothy Fancourt indicated that he would rule at a later date.
The fees requested related primarily to the broader lawsuit filed against Mirror for all plaintiffs and not for the legal costs of preparing and presenting Harry’s specific cases, since his claims have not been fully resolved.
Fancourt found that the Mirror used illegal information in 15 of the 33 newspaper articles about Harry that were examined at the trial. Those articles were selected as a representative sample of almost 150 articles that, according to him, invaded his privacy.
Sherborne asked that a trial be scheduled to address the remaining 115 articles. Mirror He indicated in court documents that he has made an offer for a legal settlement with Harry that could not be disclosed.
Once those claims are resolved, Harry will be able to seek additional fees from his attorneys.
wiretapping
Phone hacking by British newspapers dates back more than two decades, to a time when unethical journalists used an unsophisticated method to call the numbers of royals, celebrities, politicians and sports stars. and, when asked to leave a message, enter default passwords to spy on their voicemails.
The practice exploded into a full-blown scandal in 2011 when it was revealed that Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World had intercepted messages from a murdered girl, relatives of dead British soldiers and bombing victims. Murdoch closed the newspaper.
It was later discovered that the newspapers had used more intrusive means, such as wiretapping, wiretapping, and obtaining flight information and medical records.
Mirror Group Newspapers said it has paid more than £100 million ($128 million) in other phone hacking claims over the years, but denied acting illegally in Harry’s case. He said he used legitimate methods to obtain information about the prince.
FUENTE: AP
