The judgment said the \u2018very obvious reasons for this\u2019 included that the large sums \u2018were presented as contingencies\u2019; \u2018the defendant\u2019s solicitors\u2019 hourly rates were high [and]\u00a0well outside the prevailing guideline rates\u2019; and \u2018considerable overlap between each of the claimants\u2019 pleaded cases where the three claimant firms of solicitors were instructing the same counsel team\u2019.<\/p>\n
There was also \u2018considerable uncertainty\u2019 in how the claims would reach trial as well as the number of applications which might be made. The judgment said \u2018insufficient allowance seems to have been made for the fact that many of the parties\u2019 respective legal teams were involved in the Leveson Inquiry\u2019 and many of those in the claimants\u2019 legal teams had also \u2018conducted subsequent litigation involving both MGN Limited (publishers of the Mirror titles) and News Group Newspapers Limited (publishers of The Sun and News of the World)\u2019.<\/p>\n
It added: \u2018The claimants\u2019 respective legal teams therefore had acquired considerable expertise in this type of litigation and were not starting from scratch.\u2019<\/p>\n
The combined total of the claimants\u2019 budgets reached \u00a318,744,761.72, which was reduced to \u00a34,084,000. The defendants\u2019 total budget was \u00a319,850,282.40, which was reduced to \u00a34,445,000.<\/p>\n
![\"Prince](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/121185_princeharry_701493_crop.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The judge said the claims \u2018are really rather simple\u2019. He added: \u2018The fact that these claimants are well-known, and the litigation high-profile, does not affect the issues that must be resolved.\u2019<\/p>\n
Budgeted costs were reduced in statements of case, disclosure, witness statements, case management conferences, PTR (pre-trial review), trial preparation, the trial and ADR (alternative dispute resolution).<\/p>\n
Referring to disclosure in which the claimants sought \u00a31,822,229.98 and the defendant offered \u00a3600,000. The defendant sought \u00a31,299,850 and the claimants offered \u00a3800,000.<\/p>\n
Allowing \u00a3474,000 for the claimants and \u00a3750,000 for the defendants, the judge said the sums sought by both sides \u2018are clearly outside the range of reasonable and proportionate costs\u2019.<\/p>\n
He added: \u2018The defendant\u2019s solicitors\u2019 hourly rates, claimed at \u00a3740 per hour for a grade A fee earner, are high. The claimants\u2019 budgets contain a large amount of duplication between the solicitor and counsel team. We have also taken into account that both sides will incur electronic hosting costs but not at the rate they anticipate.\u2019<\/p>\n
Referring to trial preparation, in which \u00a31,250,000 was allowed for the claimants and \u00a31,100,000 for the defendants (compared with the \u00a33,649,909.94 sought by the claimants and the \u00a34,569,175 sought by the defendants), the judge said the sums sought were \u2018based on what we regard as a combination of excessive brief fees and excessive hours and grades of fee earners having regard to the complexity and nature of the issues involved\u2019.<\/p>\n
Prince Harry and former Labour MP Lord Tom Watson settled their case against News Group Newspapers, publishers of the Sun, this week with NGN making a \u2018full and unequivocal apology\u2019 to the Duke of Sussex and Lord Watson. The case against Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, continues.<\/p>\n
David Sherborne, Ben Hamer and Luke Browne, instructed by gunnercooke LLP appeared for Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, Elizabeth Hurley, Sir Elton John and David Furnish. The same counsel, i<\/strong>nstructed by Thomson Heath Jenkins & Associates appeared for Sir Simon Hughes and, instructed by Hamlins LLP, for The Duke of Sussex and Sadie Frost Law. Catrin Evans KC, Roger Mallalieu KC, Sarah Palin and Hannah Glover, instructed by Baker McKenzie LLP, appeared for Associated Newspapers Limited.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This article is now closed for comment. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u2018manifestly excessive and therefore disproportionate costs\u2019 relating to the case brought by Prince Harry and others against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7721,7719,7718,7720,1281,447,7710,519,7711],"class_list":{"0":"post-332713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-duchess-of-sussex","10":"tag-duke-of-sussex","11":"tag-harry","12":"tag-meghan","13":"tag-meghan-markle","14":"tag-prince-harry","15":"tag-royal-families","16":"tag-royal-family","17":"tag-uk-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115003609131956394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}