Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Almost 40 public figures have reached settlements with Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers over allegations of unlawful activity, leaving Prince Harry and Labour peer Lord Tom Watson as the only remaining claimants whose cases will go to trial next year.
The High Court in London was told on Friday that there had been a “dramatic reduction” in recent days in the number of outstanding legal claims against the publisher of The Sun for alleged phone hacking and other unlawful activity.
Celebrities including Louise Redknapp and Alfie Allen are among the 39 people with whom the company has settled without admission of liability, as well as the politicians Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, and Sir Norman Lamb, former Liberal Democrat MP.
However, the court was told that Prince Harry, King Charles III’s younger son who has fought a year-long battle against the UK’s tabloid press, is pressing ahead with his case alongside that of Watson, who attended a hearing on Friday. A civil trial has been scheduled to begin in January and will last up to eight weeks.
The judge, Mr Justice Fancourt, ruled that some additional correspondence between the company and members of the Royal Household should be disclosed as part of the case.
Prince Harry’s legal team sought disclosure of emails between several Murdoch employees, including senior executives Rebekah Brooks and Robert Thomson, and five employees of the Royal Household, including Lord Christopher Geidt, who was private secretary to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Correspondence between NGN and the palace “would be highly relevant in terms of providing the full picture”, barrister David Sherborne said in written submissions.
Anthony Hudson KC, for NGN, countered that the exercise was a “fishing expedition”. The judge said some correspondence should be provided.
Prince Harry’s lawyers have previously claimed there was a “secret agreement” between the royal family and Murdoch’s titles. NGN has said there was no such arrangement.
The settlements disclosed on Friday follow earlier deals struck by stars including Hugh Grant and mean the vast majority of the phone-hacking claims against News Group Newspapers have ended, more than a decade after the closure of the News of the World tabloid in 2011.
The first legal claims were made against the newspaper, which was owned by NGN alongside The Sun, after it emerged journalists had hacked the voicemail of murdered teenager Milly Dowler.
NGN has been forced to pay out more than £1bn in settlements and legal costs in covering the cases so far. The payments are covered by Murdoch’s US broadcaster Fox under the terms of a separation of News Corp and 21st Century Fox.
NGN in a statement said that the company had “publicly committed to paying financial compensation and since then has paid settlements to those with proper claims”.
The company added: “As we reach the tail-end of the litigation, NGN is drawing a line under the disputed matters. The civil proceedings have been running for more than a decade and deal with events 13 to 28 years ago.
“It is common practice and indeed encouraged in litigation to seek to settle claims outside court where both parties agree without the cost of a trial.”
However, the lawsuit by Prince Harry against the media company is the most high profile by far, after the scandal that prompted a public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the press and a police investigation into phone hacking and payments to public officials.
The investigation ended in 2015 but civil lawsuits continued to be lodged by alleged victims of phone hacking.
