Prince Harry's phone-hacking claim against Daily Mail to go to trial in 2026
Prince Harry hacking claim against the publisher of the Daily Mail will go to trial in early 2026, the High Court directed last week.
Prince Harry is one of seven claimants, including Baroness Lawrence and Sir Elton John, suing Associated Newspapers over allegations of phone-hacking and other unlawful information gathering dating back 30 years.
Associated Newspapers Limited, publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, filed Defences in all of the claims in 2024 strongly disputing the alleged wrongdoing. A trial date was set for January 2026, with the trial scheduled to last for nine weeks.
In a ruling on Friday following a preliminary hearing in November last year, Mr Justice Nicklin and Senior Master Cook said the costs budgets proposed by the parties were “manifestly excessive” and approved budgets of approximately £4 million for each side.
In November 2023 Nicklin J rejected an application by Associated Newspapers for summary judgment of the claims on grounds of limitation but Nicklin J held that Associated Newspapers had failed to deliver a “knockout blow” to any of the claims and that the action should be tried.
Sarah Palin and Claire Overman, instructed by Baker McKenzie, are junior counsel for Associated Newspapers Limited.
For further details see
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/prince-harry-legal-fees-daily-mail-rhc38hcd3
