Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, is trying to get her lawsuit against the publisher of the MailOnline and Mail on Sunday thrown out of court before the case proceeds to a blockbuster trial in the fall.
Markle is suing Associated Newspapers for breach of copyright after the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline published a private letter to her father Thomas Markle in February 2019. During a two-day High Court hearing in London, her attorneys are making representations for a summary judgment, meaning all or some of the case would be resolved before a full trial.
According to reports on today’s proceedings, lawyers for the duchess have argued that there is “no real prospect” of Associated Newspapers winning the case. “At its heart, it’s a very straightforward case about the unlawful publication of a private letter,” her lawyer Justin Rushbrooke argued, according to Sky News.
Associated Newspapers lawyers said the case is “wholly unsuitable” for summary judgment and questioned whether Markle had any expectation of privacy. The Daily Telegraph reported that the publisher’s attorney, Antony White QC, argued that she wrote the letter “with a view to it being disclosed publicly at some future point.”
Securing a summary judgment would be a major victory for Markle. It would provide closure on rumbling legal proceedings and end the prospect of a headline-grabbing trial, in which she and her father would likely be called to give evidence. Last October, Justice Warby agreed to postpone the trial to fall, 2021.
The hearing continues.
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