On Tuesday, Meghan Markle’s lawyers asked a British judge to settle her privacy lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, seeking a summary judgment that would prevent the case from going to trial in the fall.
The whole matter started when the Mail on Sunday published excerpts of a letter Meghan had written to her father Thomas Markle in August 2018. She ended up suing the tabloid’s publisher for aggravated damages and claiming that they violated her copyright and misused her private information.
Things heated up when the paper pointed out that Meghan Markle previously had no qualms about her private matters going public because it furthered her own interests. On top of that, they argued that her status as royalty and her friends anonymously dishing about her life to People Magazine made it fair game for the Mail on Sunday to publish excerpts from her letter.
However, Meghan Markle’s lawyers were not impressed with the paper’s argument. As part of the two-day hearing in London’s High Court, her lawyer Justin Rushbrooke said that the tabloid’s case had no chance of winning and that their argument doesn’t hold up to any scrutiny.
Rushbrooke also said in court that the case forced the court to consider who should have control over a private letter. Since the answer could not be the publication nor any of its editors, Rushbrooke believes that only Markle could control such a letter. Furthermore, he thinks publishing it was an attack on “her private life, her family life and her correspondence.”
The tabloid, however, is not going down without a fight. The Mail on Sunday issued a written argument that Meghan Markle fully expected her letter contents to go public. They also argue that even if she did not expect that to happen, the paper’s freedom of expression rights ultimately outweigh the individual right to privacy.
And the paper’s legal team made an aggressive push to take the matter to trial. They argued, “This case is wholly unsuitable for summary judgment. There is uncertainty as to a number of significant factual matters which can, and should, be investigated at trial when the court will have the full picture in terms of disclosure and evidence.”
It’s clear that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry would like to put this matter behind them with a summary judgment. If the judge rules in Markle’s favor, then she wins the case without going to trial. If the judge does not rule in her favor, then she and her legal team will need to prepare for a major trial that may interfere with Markle’s attempts to begin a new life in America.
The hearing to determine this matter will continue on Wednesday.