Harry v. NGN

[Atlasvue]

Starting a thread for Tuesday.
This BBC article covers the basics. This is the last line ….
’Tuesday really is the beginning of the end. And someone is going to lose - and lose big.’

I have a feeling, that Harry won’t win but he just wants to use the public setting to air his grievances. A therapy session would have worked out much cheaper.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2l00xkgwnyo

Stakes are high for all parties concerned. I’m not so sure Harry won’t win. He won his case against the Mirror. There were plenty of people predicting he wouldn’t.

Tuesday is going to be a busy news day. Harry and Lord Watson suing Murdoch’s NGN. And Trump’s inauguration.

I think he'll win as in the verdict but will be considerably out of pocket. I doubt any award will match the expenses that cannot be included in costs or the pre court judgements that went against him. The biggest outcome is not the verdict but who has to pay costs. And of course the winners are the lawyers

Proving the company was aware that illegal information gathering was going on, is a whole different ball game from proving a dodgy journalist used underhand methods.

He will be paying out millions regardless of any verdict.

I hope he loses and loses 'bigly', and crawls away with his tail between his legs. he just refuses to take any accountability for his own actions and behaviours.

I think regardless of who physically wins the course case, they will both lose in the court of public opinion. It reminds me of the Amber Heard vs Johnny Depp. Both are as bad as each other in different ways. It will be interesting to watch.

I am less interested in who actually wins, I agree both parties will be out of pocket.

What I do hope though is that some positive media changes come from this. That seems to be a driver from Harry's perspective, thiugh how realistic this is, is yet to be determined.

But this is a civil case. It can’t instigate change. That happened with the Leveson inquiry and report (of which there was supposed to be a part two but it was unfortunately abandoned). This is why this case should be settled out of court. The justice system is not there for points scoring which is what both Harry and NGN seem to want to do. At taxpayers expense

This is a really strange thing to say. Do you know what the court case is about? In what way is he responsible for his phone being tapped illegally when he was very young? Would you be ok with the press using illegal means to get information about you or your children?

Seriously, I am not a great fan of him or his wife and they have done a lot of annoying things in the last few years but that’s not what this case is about. Read about it.

@smilesy yes I am aware civil case/legal parameters.
I suppose I meant as this will be so widely reported, that the pressure naturally created will force some changes. Ever the optimist me! 😀

I would hope some better accuracy and accountability at the very least would be the natural result in terms of discissions and actions.

Unlikely? Probably.

But like all these cases, the volume and gravity of details made public, might just force some change post court case. I don't know-you just can see how invested (literally) Harry really is.

I hope he loses - mean, yes, but he has double standards, is entitled and is plain nasty - I
Know the papers are pretty bad, but nothing like they used to be. Harry is a petulant child and hasn't even got good evidence - total idiot that he is he thinks because he's a prince he can get his way and people will pander to him - I really hope he gets
A judge that puts him in his place - total waste of time and money

I thought NGN offered to settle, though?

The courts of law exist to see that justice is served, not to bring about changes in the media.

This is particularly true for a civil case such as this, where the only outcome will be financial. That's why it's preferred that such cases be settled outside of the courts, as they are the vast majority of the time. Indeed, Harry got ticked off by the judge for attempting to use the law courts as a venue to air his grievances.

Besides, this is all old news. Maybe too old from a legal perspective. The newspapers involved have been sued many times and paid out millions in compensation already. I'm not sure how you can change a media system which has now been rendered pretty much obsolete by social media. Like I say, this is old news.

He'll have received a Part 36 offer of settlement, the same as the other claimants who settled. He'll need to beat the Part 36 offer in court to avoid having to pay the other side's cost from the date of the Part 36 offer. That means that if he does win, but the damages the court awards are less than he would have got in the out of court settlement, then it's a pyrrhic victory, and he's a complete prat for wasting court time.

Civil cases are not supposed to be about dragon slaying and making moral points, they are supposed to be about putting the claimant in the position they would be in but for the alleged actions of the defendant, and the primary aim under the Civil Procedure Rules that govern civil cases is settlement. We should not forget the 2 claimants in the other case (the one Harry's brief did his dragon slaying speech at), who both failed to beat the Part 36 offers by the defendant newspaper offering them substantial damages. One lost her case altogether because of the limitation period expiring, the other was awarded damages, but not nearly as much as was offered in pre trial settlement. Both got a hefty costs bill from the newspapers. Had they settled, they'd have both been substantially rewarded.

I am not his greatest fan but I really hope he wins. Our press was and is diabolical and it was dismaying to see Hugh grant having to settle. They have destroyed lives and should be held accountable. I am not sure he will win, and I understand the arguments against his approach, but I still very much support him.

See the post above yours. It’s not a criminal trial. It’s purpose is not to apportion blame or hold anyone to account

Why was it 'dismaying' to see Hugh Grant settle? The overwhelming majority of civil cases are settled outside of court. The only possible outcome is financial, so why waste public resources in pursuit of what could be obtained through negotiation.

And Hugh Grant has accepted several out of court settlements so he knew the system very well when he chose to pursue his case.

Hugh seems to have made a career out of it ….

Along with playing “himself” in every film he’s ever been in 😆

Nice to see the hot Barrister with the good hair again 😍.

"Hot"?

I think not!

I think he’s prepared to lose out financially in order to get the full details of the unscrupulous activities reported in the media for weeks on end.

Everyone else has settled. If money was the issue, Harry would have settled. This is his mission and his revenge.

If he loses financially, he won’t feel like he’s lost, as long as all the details get reported widely, which they will be.

Harry's famously not the brightest, and his lawyers seems to have seen him coming, so to speak.

I wonder if they've made it clear to him just how much he possibly stands to lose?

And while I agree that he is using the case to 'make a point', I don't think he's rich enough to comfortably absorb the potential financial loss.

I don't hope that Harry wins. He's using the courts of law as the forum to play out his own personal vendetta, and as another person has said, this is old news. People have been punished for this, media have changed their practices, the world has moved on.

Mainly I don't want him to win because I can't bear another smug tirade from the Prince of hypocrisy where he behaves as if he's slaying a moral dragon on behalf of the whole world when all he's doing is satisfying his own desire for revenge.

And frankly, given the way he's behaved towards his family, he's the last person I'd want as a poster child for standing up against unlawful invasion of privacy. Is it ok that he released private text messages and conversations between him, his wife and his family because he didn't hire a private investigator to get hold of them? For me, I think not.

That said, I'll be following along with interest - what Harry never seems to appreciate is that what's revealed about himself in these law suits is often far more damning than any of the original pieces he's complaining about.

Read what was said by him when he accepted the payout. He wanted his day in court and I understand that, these vile people deserve to be humiliated

What about A Very English Scandal or the Undoing? He’s a very good actor.