According to Mark Stephens, who is a partner at Howard Kennedy, the ruling of the court is already an absolute victory for the Mail on Sunday. The judge throwing out so many significant parts of the case and dismissing them as “irrelevant” is no small setback. It sent out the signal that most of Meghan Markle’s complaints are not even substantial.
He said,” For Meghan, this judgment is just like a train ploughing into a petrol tanker on a level crossing. It is a complete disaster.” Stephens firmly believes that Markle is humiliated today because the judge has absolutely vindicated Associated Newspapers.
Stephens added that senior lawyers have already deemed the case over. It’s over for Meghan Markle because she no longer has any chance of winning. They also claimed that she was either poorly advised or ignored the warning she was given just because she wanted “her day in court.”
The legal expert claimed that definitely, Markle should be advised just to settle and allow the case to close. Otherwise, she’ll find herself insulted and humiliated further if her rift with her father Thomas Markle is examined under oath.
To be humiliated in person is a fate she would not want. “If she is going to be humiliated in person, there will be no worse outcome for her,” Stephens said.
Stephen is not the only legal expert to have weighed in on Markle’s case and claimed she’s bound to lose. Legal experts claimed that Mr. Justice Warby is right for doing what he did because her case was simply “overblown.”
According to Gavin Millar QC of Matrix Chambers, the case is quite simple. It merely revolves around a claim about a letter and five articles. However, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle somehow made it into a mini public inquiry about Associated Newspapers’ reporting about them. The judge is right not to allow that to happen and push back against that.
The costs would be high if the judge did not push back. Public figures who are allowed to make a public spectacle out of reports or news about them can do considerable damage to the country’s freedom of speech, Millar said.
Meghan Markle’s lawyers have not lost heart, though. They promise a battle royale against the UK tabloid despite this significant loss.
The law firm Schillings, after Judge Mark Warby dismissed specific claims made by Markle, insisted that the Duchess’ rights were violated, and the legal boundaries around her privacy were crossed.
The law firm claims that it will respect the judge’s decision, but it is sure that the Mail on Sunday should still be held accountable for their actions.
“Nonetheless, we respect the judge’s decision as the strong case against Associated will continue to focus on the issue of a private, intimate, and hand-written letter from a daughter to her father that was published by The Mail on Sunday,” Schillings asserted.
“This gross violation of any person’s right to privacy is obvious and unlawful, and The Mail on Sunday should be held to account for their actions.”
Meanwhile, even before this happened, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle already severed ties with four major tabloids in UK. They wrote them to say that they now have a zero-engagement policy in relation to them.