Meghan Markle is asking to delay her High Court case against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Mail on Sunday, and has requested a court order that could see her win the case without going to the High Court.
In what has become an increasingly complicated lawsuit, the Duchess of Sussex has today applied for an adjournment and a summary judgment, the latter of which, if granted, would end the case and potentially deliver victory to Meghan without the need for a full trial. She has also filed an appeal to have the biography Finding Freedom removed from the hearing; last month Judge Francesca Kaye rejected her request to make the book inadmissible in the case. Associated’s attorneys have argued that Meghan and Prince Harry participated with authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand in writing the book, which the Sussexes have denied.
Applying for summary judgment is a bold move on the part of the duchess, who has told friends she believes she will win her privacy battle against the Mail on Sunday’s publisher; her lawyers said today that the request shows a belief in “an overwhelmingly strong case.” The court order is intended to bring litigation to a prompt close without the need for an expensive and lengthy High Court trial—or for Meghan to potentially come face-to-face with her estranged father, Thomas Markle, who provided the letter she wrote him to the Mail on Sunday. She is suing the paper’s parent company, Associated Newspapers, for copyright infringement, misuse of private information, and breach of the Data Protection Act.
There is a precedent for the royals using summary judgment during litigation to avoid a public court case. Prince Charles successfully applied for summary judgment in his historic 2006 legal case against the Mail on Sunday, which he successfully sued after the newspaper published excerpts from one of his travel diaries.
Meghan’s lawyers will put forward the new applications in what was meant to be a virtual case-management hearing scheduled for Thursday. “Applying for summary judgment could potentially bring the case to an earlier conclusion and wouldn’t require a full trial, which would be the preferred option,” said a source close to the duchess. “What started as a lawsuit over a private letter has escalated into something much bigger, and there is a feeling that a line needs to be drawn.”
The duchess is said to be concerned about the number of private individuals who have been dragged into the case and Associated Newspapers’ request to use Finding Freedom in its defense case. The judge previously prevented the Mail on Sunday from revealing the names of the five friends who spoke to People in defense of Meghan, but the possibility remains that other people close to the duchess could be brought in as part of the trial.
The duchess is hoping her appeals will be successful, but if she is refused summary judgment, she will return to the U.K. for the court case in January.
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