To not feel very sorry for Rebekah Vardy

[Viviennemary]

This Rebekah Vardy Colleen Rooney business has ended up costing a huge amount of money. Now RV has to pay costs of £1.6 million. Total madness. Why did she do it. Obviously thought she'd win. The phone falling into the sea. Hmm how convenient.

I swear, her teeth are terrifying in the flesh! She and her posse also had a bad reputation in PL hospitality suites for cramming bottles of expensive champagne into their bags.

The gift that keeps on giving 😂

What has happened now? It would be nice if a story is attached in the opening OP’s thread.

Gosh she's learned nothing, eh? I haven't read any of the latest detail, but it'd serve her right if she incurs even more costs.

The fact she struggled to find a legal team to take this on should have been the clue that it was a waste of time and money but oh no deluded egotistical Becks knew best.

Worlds tiniest violin being played for her

RV is one of those people in life who think that everyone is ‘at it’ and judges everyone by their own low standards…So justifies behaviour like cramming champagne bottles into handbags, leaking personal info to the press, blatantly lying in court. She’s an absolute grifter who wouldn’t give JV a second glance if he was a gas fitter from Melton Mowbray. She’s also far less clever than she gives herself credit for. Look at the lies about CR’s legal team told to the press only for yet another judge to find her not telling the truth. Again. And now her husband has to pay the price for her own stupidity and inflated ego. Again. But this time with even more of a legal bill after bringing yet another action. It’s like watching a gambler in a casino chase their losses. RV/JV will have had to pay into court before starting legal action. They absolutely did know how much they might be in for but RV absolutely underestimated CR, her analytical skills and careful compilation of evidence meticulously filed to the extent even CR’s legal team remarked upon it. RV assumed CR was not very bright and this was her downfall (I’d imagine combined with a healthy dose of envy) CR has come out of this looking like a decent woman fighting for her family’s privacy. The fact JV hasn’t divorced RV so she becomes bankrupt to avoid paying the legal bill says more about him as being a likely very decent man trapped in a nightmare.

So no sympathy here.

I miss the days when people like this would just play out their battles on Facebook, then have a slanging match in person outside spoons on a Friday night. Can't believe we have to watch it on headline news these days.

Boring solicitor perspective here.

The issue currently being dealt with at court will be the "costs assessment process" where the winner's costs are assessed by the court at an amount deemed "reasonable" by the judge. The parties should ideally try and reach agreement without involving the court but evidently that hasn't happened here.

I read in the Guardian yesterday that CR's costs were a third over what has been presented in her team's costs budget. The budget is a detailed estimate of all costs up to and including trial - both parties each have to provide one some months before the trial. The court will have reviewed, possibly amended and then approved/fixed the budgets. This means that the winner will usually be limited to the maximum in the budget even if successful although the judge has discretion to consider any exceptional circumstances.

The costs judge can also allow an enhanced element of costs if the winner has previously made a good offer to settle which the loser should have accepted rather than going to trial.

Whether or not the winner's budget has been exceeded, the losing party can challenge any "unreasonable" elements of costs. for example, lawyer rates too high for certain basic tasks, excessive time spent, unnecessary work that did not progress the matter. It's entirely normal for the winner to get 20-30% lopped off. More can be docked if the judge thinks the winner/winners lawyers have not shown "good conduct" .

CR's team will be expecting some sort of reductions especially as the budget was exceeded. They will have (should have) advised CR on costs throughout and I assume she was happy to spend some money she was unlikely to fully recover in order to have a good team and a thorough approach.

The fact that this has gone to assessment is very interesting as the two legal teams will have made each other offers to settle CR's costs. RV's team has evidently not offered an acceptable amount. CR's team is more likely to have offered a reasonable amount but RV hasn't accepted, perhaps because she can't afford to pay.

It's all a total mess for RV as she's now incurring more costs of the assessment process. My bet is that her team will be desperately arguing "poor conduct" to try and batter down the costs as much as possible.

My thoughts entirely. CR was very clever in the way she did it, and I suspect she'd had legal advice before her first Insta post as she was very clever to have said "It's Rebecca Vardy's account" and not her personally.

She had RV and her team bang to rights and I was surprised when RV sued, rather than doing a public PR apology/scapegoating an (unnamed) team member that had access to her account.

I think her manager/assistant/whoever she is (who "lost" her phone in the sea) is a toxic influence on her or they're the ones that we all remember from school - the bitchy ones that gang up on others and think they're in the right about everything.

Glad she got her comeuppance. And more fool her for going against CR who could afford the most expensive legal advice, even if she'd lost herself. I know the latest ruling was that it was only borderline OK in terms of the costs, but many of the explanations were reasonable to me. She hired a London firm because she wanted the best advice. The solicitor stayed a Nobu because CR got a comparatively cheap rate to the nearby Premier Inn. The "minibar" charges were two bottles of water (OK, knowing Nobu they were probably very expensive bottles, but it's not like he was having a piss up on all the mini bottles!).

If you take someone to court you have to be prepared for the fact you might lose your case. RV took CR to court not the other way around. She cannot have not known this might happen. She was so arrogant she would win this is all on her head. Don’t take someone to court if you cant afford to pay the costs of losing. She didn’t need to take this case as far as it went so I feel zero sympathy for her. CR never wanted to go to court or spend this money in the first place but RV was fine spending everyone else’s money until she lost?

That's good to get your perspective.

It feels to me like CR is able and willing to pay whatever she has to, but has given her team carte blanche to try and recover as much as possible from RV.

She didn't care how much it cost to win and any recovery of costs is a win for her too.

It caught fire not so long ago - gym issues I think.

So Colleen's lawyer says that RV's claims are potentially defamatory and 'steps will be taken'.

" On Tuesday, Mr Dunne said that claims made in court on Monday about hotel costs incurred by a lawyer representing Mrs Rooney in 2022 were "factually incorrect". ^
^

^Mrs Vardy's KC Jamie Carpenter had said Mrs Rooney's total included costs for a lawyer staying "at the Nobu Hotel, incurring substantial dinner and drinks charges as well as mini bar charges".
But Mr Dunne, noting the charges had been widely reported in the media as “evidence of the defendant wildly spending”, said they were “potentially defamatory” and steps would be taken.
He added that a “modest” hotel had been booked for the lawyer, but on the first night there had been no wi-fi or working shower, so he transferred to the Nobu after Mrs Rooney’s agent said she could get reduced rates.
A room at Nobu ordinarily costs £600 but was charged at £295, which he said was the same price as a room at a Premier Inn.
Addressing the claim that £225 had been spent on a food and minibar tab, Mr Dunne said the minibar bill had actually come to £7 for two bottles of water, and that the lawyer had not eaten at the Nobu restaurant during his stay.^"

I read an interesting article a while ago about how Jamie and Rebekah are all ‘love you babes’ on social media but he only turned up to court once. Whereas Wayne never says a word about Colleen but turned up every single day to sit quietly next to her and support her

funny that the passage of time has ended with me praising Wayne Rooney! But they seem a genuinely quietly devoted couple trying to have a normal-ish life

Thanks,@honeylulu , that’s very informative.

RV seems to have learned nothing and continues to score own goals to the detriment of her reputation and finances.

It caught fire not so long ago - gym issues I think.

Blaze started by a pair of pants. on fire

I always remember her on I'm a Celebrity and how absolutely awful she was - a school bully who created a nasty pack of sidekicks around her and ganged up on poor Iain Lee. She was really vile and made me so angry at the time.

I hadn't realised she has subsequently tried to promote herself as an anti-bullying ambassador (a total fvcking joke!) and that Iain Lee refused to be interviewed about her promoting mental health. She is unbelievable!

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/rebekah-vardy-iain-lee-b2137997.html

Also interesting to note that CR instructed Brabners, a Liverpool firm (with a good reputation) whilst RV instructed Kingsley Napley, a London City firm ... for all the good it did her!

I've read a bit more about the costs process. The primary decision of the court is that RV should pay 90% of CR's costs and also that CR was not deliberately "misleading" about her costs at budget stage and the costs themselves are not dishonest/inaccurate.

90% is very high and indicates the court taking a punitive approach to RV for bringing the claim and pursuing it to trial. However, there is still scope for RV to challenge individual elements of costs as unreasonably incurred and too far above budget. So she will probably get more knocked off but she will be stuck with paying the bulk. If she can actually pay, that is.

I bet Jamie Vardy was so relieved that Leicester were promoted to the Premiership so he was back to earning big bucks. Just to carry on paying for the bad decisions made by his unpopular wife.

She's an absolute peach isn't she.
Can't say I'm feeling any sympathy for her whatsoever.

JV earns at least 5 million a year so no problem paying the bill but reduced the amount of money for the family pot.

This is brilliant

Wasted everyone's time on a stupid feud

I think you’d be surprised. You’ve got a wife out spending money like water, she’s probably insisted all of her kids have private schooling they’ve probably got a mortgage then add in international travel where RV insist they all travel in first, hairdressers and make up artist on tap. They’ve probably bought family members houses. Plus the undoubtedly numerous aesthetic treatments RV has.. It never fails to astonish me how many people are on the average celebrities payroll if you include all of the above plus agents fees etc. And don’t forget the ones who are taken in by investors who were them to sink money into tax efficient schemes that end up being nothing of the sort. All of these costs coming from people who came from relatively normal backgrounds. They simply don’t spend money in the way that most of us would - most women don’t have a clutch of Hermes handbags and the like! Their spending would be more aligned with lottery winners than the average prudent person

Many former footballers who earned well during their playing careers made very poor choices though in respect of providing an income when their careers have finished. There are only limited managerial opportunities, or for punditry on football programmes. So, if they don't squirrel some away, in fairly big quantities, they have had it.