Prince Harry’s lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s British media group is due to return to court on Wednesday, with the warring parties possibly reaching a last-minute deal to settle allegations of widespread wrongdoing at the publisher.
Mr Harry and Tom Watson, a former senior parliamentarian, are suing News Group Newspapers over illegal activities allegedly carried out by journalists and private investigators working for his newspapers, the Sun and the now defunct News of the World, between 1996 and 2011.
An eight-week trial to rule on their hotly contested lawsuit was scheduled to begin Tuesday, but, in an unexpected twist, both sides asked for more time to reach an agreement, much to the chagrin of the judge, Timothy Fancourt, who said that they had plenty of time to reach an agreement.
“There have been very intense discussions over the last few days,” NGN lawyer Anthony Hudson said, while he and Harry’s lawyer cited “difficulties related to time difference,” referring to Harry. , who lives in California.
Harry filed his first legal action against NGN in 2019, one of several complaints he has filed against British newspapers.
NGN has paid hundreds of millions of pounds to victims of phone hacking and other illegal information harvesting by the News of the World, and has settled more than 1,300 lawsuits involving celebrities, politicians, athletes known and ordinary people who were linked to them or to major events.
-But she has always rejected allegations that the Sun newspaper committed wrongdoing, or that high-ranking figures knew of it or tried to cover it up, as Harry’s lawsuit alleges.
The prince, 40, said his mission was not to get money but to discover the truth, after other plaintiffs settled their cases to avoid the risk of a legal bill of several million pounds, which could be imposed on them even if they won in court, but which had rejected NGN’s proposal.
Hudson said Tuesday that if the trial begins, “a very significant amount would become payable,” which he said “would have a very significant impact on the dynamics of the settlement.”
If held, the trial will first examine “generic issues” such as the extent of wiretapping and illegal newsgathering by newspapers.
He will then look at the specific cases of the two complainants, with Harry himself due to give evidence next month.
