LONDON (UK) – Meghan, Britain’s Duchess of Sussex, was awarded 450,000 pounds on Tuesday as a provisional payment in her legal costs after securing a win over a privacy claim against the Mail on Sunday which had printed extracts of a letter she had penned to her father.
Judge Mark Warby ruled in her favour without holding a trial, saying the articles were a clear intrusion of privacy after the paper put forth in an argument that the duchess had intended the letter’s contents to be made public and it formed part of a media strategy.
At a hearing on Tuesday, Warby denied the paper any permission to file an appeal against that decision, saying he saw “no real prospect” that the Court of Appeal would come to a different conclusion. However, the paper is not able to apply directly to the court.
The court was told Meghan’s legal team was more than 1.5 million pounds in legal fees, with half the amount to be handed over within 14 days, which the paper described as “disproportionate”.
Warby has come to an agreement to make an interim costs order of 450,000 pounds, saying the final sum “may well be considerably more than that” after other outstanding issues were resolved at later hearings.
Meghan’s legal team also presented a demand that the paper returns any copies it has of the letter. It called for the judge to order the paper to publish a statement on its front page with a statement about her win in her case, with a notice also placed on the MailOnline’s home page for “not less than 6 months” to act as a deterrent.
Warby said he would issue an order for the delivery or damage of any copies of the letter yet.
Her lawyer Ian Mill told the hearing that they were not aiming for punishing the paper. It was said that it would accept nominal damages based on the profits the Mail made from its articles, saying this way forward was “proportionate”.
In its written submissions, the paper’s lawyers wrote: “No purpose would be served by a hearing to determine the precise amount, which by definition is not relevant. It is suggested that 1 pound, 2 pounds or 5 pounds would do.”