Prince Harry was told that he and fellow claimants taking legal action against the Daily Mail publishers must not spend more than £4.1m on costs – around £14m less than they were proposing via The Independent.
The Duke of Sussex is among a group of people which includes Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, actor Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley, and politician Sir Simon Hughes – who are bringing legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over alleged misuse of private information.
It is reported that the both sides had proposed to spend more than £38.8m in the legal claim combined, with the claimants proposing to spend around £18.7m.
However, Judge Cook stated that he and Mr Justice Nicklin “had little difficulty concluding that such sums were manifestly excessive and therefore disproportionate”.
On Friday, the two High Court judges ruled that the claimants could instead spend around £4.1m, and ANL around £4.5m, in the case.
Judge Cook said: “Costs management is not an exercise of reducing the parties’ costs to an irreducible minimum but setting reasonable and proportionate parameters.”
The Duke of Sussex has accused the publisher of allegedly commissioning unlawful activities, including hiring private investigators to place listening devices inside cars, recording private phone conversations “blagging” private records, and even burglaries to order.
ANL, which firmly denies the allegations, previously told the court that the accusations are “lurid” and “simply preposterous.
