On Monday, Prince Harry's latest win once again put the British media spotlight on the phone tapping case. According to the latest reports, Prince Harry's lawyer has filed a petition with the court demanding that the publisher of the Daily Mirror pay nearly £2 million in legal fees to cover the costs spent to prove that the Mirror Group violated his privacy and illegally tapped his news exclusive.
Last month, Prince Harry won a major victory, with a judge awarding him £140,000 in damages and finding phone tapping in the Mirror newspaper "widespread and commonplace" and that newspaper executives were trying to cover it up.
Although the amount of compensation is only a fraction of what he is asking for, it is an important victory for his legal battle against the British media. In fact, this is just one of several cases he has brought against tabloid publishers. In June, Prince Harry made history by becoming the first senior member of the British royal family to testify in court in a century.
Subsequently, Prince Harry did not stop there, and he will continue to confront the publishers of The Sun and Daily Mail, accusing them of illegal wiretapping. He dropped his lawsuit against the Daily Mail publisher in a defamation case because the pre-trial ruling was against him. However, this did not weaken his determination to pursue justice.
Monday's hearing was largely about legal fees and involved Harry as one of four plaintiffs, including two actors from Britain's longest-lived TV soap opera, Coronation Street. The plaintiffs accused the Mirror of tapping their phones and hiring private investigators to illegally collect their personal information.
The judge found that the privacy of the four plaintiffs had been violated, but dismissed the lawsuit filed by actor Nikki Sanderson and comedian Paul Whitehouse because they filed too late. The judge only awarded actor Michael Turner £31,000 in compensation.
Prince Harry's lawyer, David Sherborn, argued that their case was "very successful" and argued that his client should be compensated for attorneys' fees because the Mirror filed a "fundamentally dishonest case".
However, Roger Maraleu, a lawyer for the Mirror, argued that they would only have to pay part of the costs of losing the lawsuit. He said Sanderson and Whitehouse should pay the Mirror because they lost the case. He also argued that Turner would only be awarded the same amount of damages as the Mirror claimed, after which he should also pay the Mirror's attorneys' fees.
In response, Judge Timothy Van Coult said he would make his ruling at a later date. For now, the costs sought are primarily for the extensive lawsuit filed against the Mirror by all the plaintiffs, not just to cover Prince Harry's legal fees. This is an important initiative to send a clear message to the media that privacy violations will come at a high cost.