The Duke of Sussex and other household names have launched a Court of Appeal bid to challenge a judge’s rulings in their unsuccessful claims against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers.
The group, also including Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Sir Elton John, sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over allegations of unlawful information-gathering.
ANL strongly denied the claims, which were heard at an 11-week trial in London earlier this year, with judge Mr Justice Nicklin dismissing all the cases in a judgment on July 7.
In a decision in August, the judge ruled that the group had to pay £9,544,355 within seven days as an initial contribution to the publisher’s costs ahead of further hearings to determine the total sum.
Mr Justice Nicklin also said that ANL’s costs should be determined on an indemnity basis, which is more favourable to the publisher in terms of the amount it can recover, aside from where orders had already been made.
On Friday, a spokesperson for Harry, Lady Lawrence, Sir Elton, his husband David Furnish and actresses Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost said: “We confirm that the claimants have today filed applications with the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal the judgments of Mr Justice Nicklin in respect of his dismissal of their claims and the indemnity costs order.
“The claimants respectfully disagree with those unprecedented decisions, which they consider to be legally and factually flawed.”
Court staff also confirmed on Friday that a bid to appeal against the rulings had been filed at the Court of Appeal.
Barristers for the group had alleged at trial that private investigators, freelance journalists and staff at ANL carried out acts including voicemail interception, landline tapping and obtaining information by deception – also known as “blagging”.
But lawyers for the publisher said that Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday journalists provided a “compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing of articles”, including friends and “leaky” social circles, press officers and spokespeople, as well as previous reporting, freelance journalists and stories from other newspapers and news agencies.
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