Prince Harry's Legal Battle Against the British Tabloid Industry Will Continue, Judge Rules

Prince Harry's ongoing battle against the British tabloid industry will reach another phase, as a high court judge ruled that Harry, alongside Elton John and Doreen Lawrence, would be able to continue their lawsuit against the Daily Mail publisher.

Mr. Justice Nicklin said Associated Newspapers had “not been able to deliver a ‘knockout blow’ to the claims of any of these claimants."

The seven suppliants were satisfied with the court's decision, and the group of celebrities was quoted saying the court “allows our claims over serious criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy by the Mail titles to proceed to trial."

They also noted that the Associated Newspapers pushed for the case to be thrown out, but their attempts were dismissed.

The complainants accused the media conglomerate of engaging in unethical methods to publish stories about them.

“We bring our claims over the deplorable and illegal activities which took place over many years, including private investigators being hired to place secret listening devices inside our cars and homes, the tapping of our phone calls, corrupt payments to police for inside information, and the illegal accessing of our medical information from hospitals and financial information from banks," their joint statement read.

Nicklin rejected the company's assertion that the A-listers pursued litigation years after the alleged incidents occurred.

"A real prospect of demonstrating not only that the unlawful acts themselves were concealed, but also, in many instances, further devices were employed in the published articles to throw the subject ‘off the scent,'" the justice said. “Several claimants complain that they believed that their confidences were being betrayed by people close to them.”

Despite Harry's years of accusing the Mail of disrespecting his privacy, the publication denied his claims.

“As we have always made unequivocally clear, the lurid claims made by Prince Harry and others of phone-hacking, landline-tapping, burglary and sticky-window microphones are simply preposterous and we look forward to establishing this in court in due course," they said in a statement.

“The court will, for its part, not permit the use in litigation of documents which have been provided or obtained in breach of a restriction order without the relevant restriction order being varied or revoked," they continued. "By so doing, the court is upholding and promoting the rule of law. Ignoring (or treating without consequence) the breach of a restriction order would involve the court in undermining the rule of law.”

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Harry's ongoing fight against British news outlets has painted the royal family in a negative light. While in court fighting News Group Newspapers, the Duke of Sussex alluded to Queen Elizabeth having an understanding with NGN.

"There was in place an agreement between the Institution and NGN that we would not engage, or even discuss, the possibility of bringing claims against NGN until the litigation against it relating to phone hacking was over," the author said, according to court documents.

"The Institution made it clear that we did not need to know anything about phone hacking and it was made clear to me that the royal family did not sit in the witness box because that could open up a can of worms," he added.

The Guardian reported on Harry's lawsuit.