Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon OBE & Ors v Associated Newspapers Limited

Facts

The seven claimants — Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon OBE, Elizabeth Hurley, Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Sir Simon Hughes, Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, and Sadie Frost Law — sued Associated Newspapers Limited, publisher of the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, alleging that private information about them had been obtained by unlawful information gathering. The claims were issued in October 2022 and launched publicly by a press release alleging bugging, live-call interception, payment of police officials, impersonation to obtain medical records and illicit access to financial information. Alongside article-specific allegations, the claimants advanced a wide generic case of widespread and habitual unlawful information gathering, allegations of serious wrongdoing originally against 77 journalists, editors and executives, allegations that Paul Dacre, Peter Wright and Elizabeth Hartley had lied to the Leveson Inquiry, and allegations resting substantially on the evidence of Gavin Burrows. Costs budgets were approved at the first case management hearing and later varied. After a trial lasting 11 weeks, Nicklin J dismissed the claims in the Main Judgment handed down on 7 July 2026. The claimants accepted that they must pay Associated's costs and make a payment on account, and a further hearing was held on 29-30 July 2026 to resolve the outstanding consequential issues.