Title
The Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle has won her high court privacy case against the Mail on Sunday, hailing her victory as a “comprehensive win” over the newspaper’s “illegal and dehumanising practices.”
Date
October 2, 2019
State or Country
United Kingdom
County/City:
London, England
The Court the Case was filed in
London High Court, Chancery Division,
Type of Case
The former Meghan Markle, 39, is suing publisher Associated Newspapers for invasion of privacy and copyright infringement over five February 2019 articles in the Mail on Sunday and on the MailOnline website, which published portions of a handwritten letter to her father, Thomas Markle, after her 2018 wedding to Harry
Case Number
TBD
Judges
Lord Justice Warby
In his judgment, ruled for Meghan Markle’s in her claim for misuse of private information against Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Mail on Sunday (MoS) and Mail Online, over five articles in February 2019 that included extracts from the letter.
Plaintiff
The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle has won her high court privacy case against the Mail on Sunday, hailing her victory as a “comprehensive win” over the newspaper’s “illegal and dehumanising practices.”
After a two-year legal battle, a judge granted summary judgment in Meghan Markle’s favor over the Mail on Sunday’s publication of extracts of a “personal and private” handwritten letter to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.
Defendant
Associated Newspapers and its publications the Mail On Sunday and the Mail Online
Plaintiff Attorney
Barrister David Sherborne, who is acting for the Duchess in the court case, specialises in privacy, confidentiality and defamation, as well as matrimonial and sports law. He has previous links to royalty, having represented Prince Harry's late mother Diana, Princess of Wales. His other famous clients have included Cherie and Tony Blair, Donald and Melania Trump, Chelsea Clinton, Sir Paul McCartney, Kate Moss, David Walliams, Sir Elton John and David Furnish, the Spice Girls and Cheryl Cole, to name a few. A University of Oxford alumni, Mr Sherborne also worked on the Leveson Inquiry and has led high-profile phone hacking claims for celebrities, including Hugh Grant.
Justin Rushbrooke, argued that that the publisher had “no real prospect” of winning because “it's a very straightforward case about the unlawful publication of a private letter” meant as a "message of peace" for her father alone
Schillings last year, one of the leading law firms in reputation management, which has represented a number of high profile clients over the years, including author JK Rowling and Kate Winslet's husband, Edward Abel Smith.
Others that affected your case
The Duchess of Sussex has identified the five close friends who gave an interview to People magazine criticising her father - but denies she authorised them to do it in the latest bombshell documents released as part of her High Court battle against the press.
ANL has said Thomas Markle shared the letter only after Meghan's friends - who could be called to give evidence at a possible trial in late 2020 or early 2021 - gave an interview about it to the US magazine People, which he felt vilified him, and he wanted to show it was not the tender message they had suggested.
Comments
Duchess Meghan wins privacy lawsuit against British tabloid: 'Damage runs deep' Duchess Meghan of Sussex scored a major victory Thursday in London, winning a summary judgment in her contentious lawsuit against a tabloid for invading her privacy when it published parts of a letter she wrote to her estranged father