Prince Harry may be a royal, celebrity, and media mogul, but he’s not necessarily the best plaintiff.
Case in point, the Duke of Sussex spent part of this week in court as part of a larger lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), publisher of the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People tabloids. Harry and his fellow plaintiffs are arguing the newspapers illegally violated their privacy via means like phone hacking. But while Harry’s testimony was historic — he was “the first British royal to appear in the witness box since the 1890s,” according to Reuters — opposing counsel called it “extraordinary” for very different reasons. (MGN has previously admitted to hacking other individuals, eventually settling hundreds of cases, but its legal team denies Harry was ever a victim.)
Harry did not appear in court, putting attorney David Sherborne in the unenviable position of having to account for his client’s absence.
The judge, Sir Timothy Fancourt, directed the duke to be in court in London on June 5, just in case the parties’ statements finished early and his testimony could then begin early. But Harry did not appear in court, putting attorney David Sherborne in the unenviable position of having to account for his client’s absence.
Sherborne informed the court that Harry would be “attending tomorrow” because “he flew yesterday evening from Los Angeles.” It was likely as unconvincing an argument in a London courtroom as it would have been in an American one. Was Harry physically in London, but jetlagged? The lawyers did not exactly clarify. But the episode seemed to add to the overall impression that Harry perhaps expected special treatment in the Royal Courts of Justice.
And why did Harry take a flight that would possibly make him late for court? According to Sherborne: “He was attending his daughter’s birthday.”
Not a great excuse. And not a great start for Harry, either.
In U.S. courts, criminal defendants…
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