{"id":717538,"date":"2026-07-29T16:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T16:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/717538\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T16:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T16:16:14","slug":"prince-harry-and-co-claimants-face-huge-legal-bill-due-to-insurance-shortfall-prince-harry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/717538\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince Harry and co-claimants face huge legal bill due to insurance shortfall | Prince Harry"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Duke of Sussex and his co-claimants could be millions of pounds out of pocket after losing their privacy case against the publishers of the Daily Mail<\/a>, the high court in London heard.<\/p>\n

The seven claimants, who include Prince Harry, Doreen Lawrence and Elton John, sued Associated Newspapers<\/a> Limited over allegations of unlawful information gathering, with their claims dismissed in their entirely by Mr Justice Nicklin on 7 July. Now, their insurance may not cover the costs incurred by ANL defending the case.<\/p>\n

In a two-day hearing beginning on Wednesday to determine how costs should be paid, the court heard there was a shortfall between the \u00a316.2m insurance cover the claimants had, and ANL\u2019s reported costs of \u00a334.5m.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for ANL say the claimants should pay its costs on an indemnity basis, under which the losing party covers the other side\u2019s costs without the need to show that those costs are proportionate.<\/p>\n

ANL are asking for an interim \u00a39,950,624.37 payment. The claimants have offered an \u00a38m interim payment.<\/p>\n

Antony White KC, for ANL, argued that the claimants\u2019 conduct justified costs on an indemnity, rather than standard, basis, and said the allegations were \u201cof the broadest scope and utmost seriousness\u201d.<\/p>\n

They alleged misconduct including \u201cserious wrongdoing amounting in many cases to criminal conduct\u201d against no fewer than 77 journalists, editors and executives, although only 23 were involved in the claims. Some allegations were unceremoniously abandoned at trial \u201cwithout any apology or even acknowledgment\u201d.<\/p>\n

White said the legal action was part of a \u201ccampaign\u201d to demonstrate ANL had \u201cmisled the Leveson inquiry\u201d, using high profile individuals to persuade the government to implement the second part of the inquiry.<\/p>\n

The allegations were pursued to the \u201cbitter end\u201d, with the proceedings seen as the \u201cvanguard\u201d, or first wave of cases, before a \u201cbanquet of litigation\u201d in a strategy to swamp ANL with other potential claims, he said.<\/p>\n

The strategy was such that, even if the full panoply of allegations were not proven, any finding against ANL would be a \u201ccatastrophe\u201d for the Daily Mail<\/a> publisher, White added.<\/p>\n

The claimants, who also included David Furnish<\/a>, Sadie Frost, Liz Hurley and Simon Hughes, cast a \u201cstrikingly wide\u201d net for their claim \u201cin the hope of catching some fish\u201d.<\/p>\n

White said he was sad to say that Lawrence, the mother of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, was recruited to the case by Harry as a \u201cnational treasure\u201d to garner public sympathy and give the claims the necessary degree of credibility. \u201cThat is a matter of regret for my client, but it is not to be shrunk from,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

White pointed to the statement, issued by Harry and Lawrence after the 11-week trial, which attacked the judge and called the 426-page ruling a \u201ccomplete and obvious whitewash\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Bacon KC, for the claimants, said in written submissions that the judge should not award ANL their costs on the stricter, indemnity basis, adding that the incurred costs as of this month were nearly \u00a334.5m million, which \u201cexceed its approved budget\u201d by more than \u00a318.6m.<\/p>\n

It reflected \u201can astonishingly high legal spend\u201d by ANL and an \u201centirely cavalier\u201d and \u201cno expense spared\u201d approach, overriding the principle of proportionality which seeks to ensure parties are on an equal footing.<\/p>\n

The claimants had obtained insurance cover of a combined \u00a316.2m. \u201cAt that level of cover, the claimants would reasonably expect to be insured for the total of Associated\u2019s incurred costs and approved estimated costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told the court ANL had increased its legal spend \u201cwithout telling us\u201d, and had previously told the court their spend would be \u00a320m.<\/p>\n

He said that the group had \u201cconducted themselves honestly and in good faith\u201d. Referring to the post-trial statement by Harry and Lawrence, he said \u201cThe costs to be ordered at this hearing concern the action itself, not the reaction to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hearing continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Duke of Sussex and his co-claimants could be millions of pounds out of pocket after losing their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-717538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}