Meghan Markle Suffers a Setback in Legal Privacy Case Against the 'Daily Mail'

• In the case between Meghan Markle and the Daily Mail publishers (opens in new tab), Meghan suffered a recent legal setback.
• Parts of her claim were struck out for being irrelevant, complicated, and not meeting procedural requirements. The case will still move forward.
• Meghan reportedly feels that if the press treatment of her had been experienced by Kate Middleton (opens in new tab), the Royal Family would have done something about it.

In Meghan Markle's ongoing legal case over her privacy (launched after the Daily Mail published excerpts of a private letter between her and her father), she had a setback today (opens in new tab). The judge struck out part of her claim against the Mail on Sunday's publisher Associated Newspapers, in which she claimed that the paper acted "dishonestly" by only publishing parts of it, that it "stirred up" the problems between her and her father, and that it had an "agenda" to publish nasty and defamatory stories about her.

According to royal reporter Omid Scobie (opens in new tab), the elements were eliminated because they were judged irrelevant, litigating them would be "disproportionately complicated," and procedural requirements hadn't been met. Meghan's not appealing the ruling. A spokesperson for the lawyers representing Meghan said, in part:

"Today's ruling makes very clear that the core elements of this case do not change and will continue to move forward...the extremes to which The Mail on Sunday used distortive, manipulative, and dishonest tactics to target The Duchess of Sussex have been put on full display...we are surprised to see that [the Judge's] ruling suggests that dishonest behavior is not relevant...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."

Per Scobie, "It was conceded by Mail on Sunday’s legal rep that this ruling will not affect Meghan’s ability 'to get home' on the case." And these elements could be brought back in if done in a relevant, procedurally accurate way later on in the case. So there's still hope, is what I'm saying.

Another rough setback? The legal costs:

We'll have to wait and see what happens as the case develops.

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