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

The civil courts do not exist to settle scores in public. They exist to force both parties to come to a financial agreement, something which is more easily and efficiently done outside of court, without intruding on the relevant parties' privacy. This is by far the preferred option, recommended by the courts, and the vast majority of such cases are settled in this way. When you're a future king, protecting your and your family's privacy obviously takes on an extra layer of importance, so it makes absolute sense that William was one of that vast majority to reach a private settlement.

That's not to say his actions didn't have an impact on the situation. Others have outlined just how above. Getting a public apology, without admitting liability from the paper itself, is not that great an achievement. Certainly not when you set yourself up as a slayer of dragons.

It literally acknowledges unlawful activities.

But not from senior staff at The Sun, which is what Harry supposedly set out to prove in his quest for money 'accountability'.

I’m inclined to agree. As I type I haven’t seen what the settlement is but hear it’s likely to be a whopper. They blinked first. I’m gritting my teeth for the inevitable sanctimonious statement from him but in this case he had been wronged and a public apology and a gesture of compensation was warranted.

I’d be even happier if he dropped the RAVEC case but we can’t have everything.

Rumour is that the settlement is an eight figure number.

events that no longer occur

The press still invades people's privacy. The main reason you don't hear about "phone hacking" is that people no longer use voice mail (with a PIN that they didn't change). These days the preferred method is to wangle an invite to a WhatsApp group with a moderator who isn't sufficiently on the ball (or just pay someone to forward the texts).

The other result of the Leveson inquiry, although this certainly isn't the fault of any of the people who were hacked, is that anyone who wants to start doing actual journalism now has to get themselves signed up with a regulator (£), even if their only motive is to expose local authority corruption. Meanwhile misinformation proceeds completely unregulated on YouTube, Facebook, etc.

It acknowledges the unlawful activities of lowly journalists and contractors (private investigators) that the public already knew had carried out unlawful activities, thanks to Leveson and the subsequent criminal proceedings. It specifically does not acknowledge illegal activity on the part of NGN and its top employees who Harry was looking to be held to account in pursuing these claims.

So we are none the wiser. Article in DM said Harry got £10m. Wonder if they paid his court costs too. Then the judge said it was regrettable the case wasn't settled sooner then there wouldn't be these enormous costs and time wasting. I wonder who that was aimed at.

What Harry seems happy to accept in the apology- is that it was members of staff lower down the hierarchy at the Sun that were to blame- not the big bosses, not the editors not the owner.

But then we know how Meghan treats members of their own staff low down on the ladder.

So happy to shift the blame on to others lower down in order to take the cash.

Nice one Harry

I agree with your first paragraph. He settled because it's not the done thing for future heir to be in court revealing private information as would have happened.

Harry didn't criticise William for settling. He believes there was a secret deal for no more future claims to be made as an apology was to be given after after cases were settled, it didn't happen so he raise dhis own case. Seems he really wanted that apology and was willing to take the risk of going to trial to get it.

So neither are wrong, one settled cos he has to think of the institution he will be residing over the other held off for the apology, it didn't come and decided to go get it. He must be happy with the apologies given, more than what was on offer last time and there may be other things in the mix we don't know that pushed him and Watson to settle.

Proving it was all about the cash.

His legal bill will still be a large chunk of that. However, what’s left over- will he be splitting that with the people he made out he was fighting for? Will he donate to charity?

I take those 'rumours' with a pinch of salt.

Remember we were told they were getting vast sums from NF and now NF have confirmed they were not?

I'm sure it will be a lot of course, but then he'll presumably have to pay Sherborne's substantial fees out of it? Also, does anyone know if pay outs like this are liable to be taxed in Britain?

Sherborne said that the delay was due to not being able to get instructions

Is this Sherborne shifting the blame and dropping his client in it? 'Don't blame us for yesterday's goings on. Not only did our client not bother to show his face in Court, he couldn't even manage to be available on the end of a phone.'

Did they admit to anything that they hadn't previously admitted to in the Leveson inquiry? Certainly the apology only covered stuff up to 2011 - so not all of Harry's claims.

William had to keep quiet as he had instigated a criminal inquiry - not just suing for money - 2 people were jailed.

Harry originally sued alongside William as a co-plaintive - but dropped out

Everyone knows what the costs consequences are, it's been discussed on this thread and on the previous threads ad nauseam

Well, hence me cutting the question short Partybagprick, obviously.

All the circumstances of the case Serenster, obviously. It helps that my thinking isn't clouded by any feelings about Harry one way or the other.

Yes, I have no doubt that journalists have all sorts of ways of finding info, and stupid people who put their entire lives on social media leave themselves wide open. Whether joining a WhatsApp group counts as illegality will no doubt be the subject of a test case somewhere down the pike. However, as far as the phone hacking practices that formed the basis of Harry et al's complaints are concerned, they are, certainly in terms of technological exposure, ancient history.

Yesterday was a shambles that didn't show Sherborne in a good light - although I guess he will end up with more of the money than Harry

No, you are not. He was using the case to try to humiliate his family again.

That rumour existed before any of this happened though!

It acknowledges unlawful activity that was already known to have occurred, as established in the enquiry and the various criminal court cases.

There is nothing whatsoever new in it.

There does seem to be conflation of the actual statement from NGN and the statement of Sherborne and Watson. The only thing new in NGNs statement was Diana but otherwise it's the same blah of we apologise for what happened but we knew nothing. I hope it brings Harry peace but reality is Murdoch remains untouched and probably unbothered

BBC reporting that NGN will probably pay all the costs. See pic from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd9qqj3gvv1t

Whatever you think of Harry, his lawyers have played a blinder here. NGN blinked first. They decided that spending weeks having their past crimes replayed, possibly involving further awkward questioning of the senior people who "were completely unaware" that this was going on despite signing off on the payments, was not worth it.

He was going to slay the dragon, the dragon is as it is and will continue to be.
He settled. His armour is yet again tarnished.
Had Harry tried to take on the NGN, especially if his evidence was as limp and wishy washy as it was with the Mirror group then he'd have lost everything he has - I suspect NGN offered the apology in the hope he'd take the money as it could have definitely been a fast pathway to self destruction to be honest, he's a man on the edge at the best of times, I don't think the papers are as bad as they used to be, but wondered if, in these circumstances, that they felt sorry for him --- just a thought 🤔

Well it looks like the dragon won in the end.

We all know NGN hacked his (any many others’) phones. We know they obtained their info through nefarious means. We’ve not learnt anything new and they have still not been held accountable. They still deny obtaining info through illegality. He could have put an end to this years ago and moved on with his life.

But instead he pontificates about dragon slaying and holding people accountable. He publicly accused the royal family of secret deals and exposed William’s private settlement. So the fact that he has now settled last minute shows him for the sanctimonious, hypocritical little toad he is. He has wasted the courts’ time and he has wasted to public’s money.

If you want talk about dragon slaying, look to the William case. At least Clive Goodman and company got a prison sentence for hacking Catherine and William’s phones.

Harry didn't criticise William for settling. He believes there was a secret deal for no more future claims to be made as an apology was to be given after after cases were settled, it didn't happen so he raise dhis own case. Seems he really wanted that apology and was willing to take the risk of going to trial to get it.

And ironically, breach his own brothers’s privacy by revealing the confidential settlement in the witness statement he filed to further his personal crusade, don’t forget that bit…