Prince Harry’s privacy case against Murdoch tabloids to proceed as planned

Prince Harry’s privacy case has avoided a major delay after London’s High Court rejected an application by the publisher of Rupert Murdoch-owned British mass-market newspapers that could have caused stalled proceedings for two years.
In total, 42 figures are suing News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publisher of the Sun and the defunct News of the World, over allegations that its journalists, or private detectives they contracted, had been involved in unlawful activities and invasion of their privacy.
A trial focusing on some of those claims, possibly including Harry’s, is due to begin at the High Court in London in January next year, but on Wednesday the publisher, NGN, applied to have a ruling first on whether some of the lawsuits had been brought outside a six-year time limit for legal action.
On Friday, Judge Timothy Fancourt rejected that application for a preliminary trial, meaning the cases will proceed as planned.
Fancourt said it could lead to an “unsatisfactory” two-year delay and risk increasing costs, saying it was unlikely that NGN would win a time limitation argument in every case.