A very important hearing is taking place today in London. The hearing is – from what I gather – something of an evidentiary hearing between the Duchess of Sussex and her lawyers versus the Mail on Sunday and their lawyers. Last year, Meghan sued the Mail for publishing her handwritten letter to her father and for completely misrepresenting her relationship to Thomas Markle and… possibly even paying him to read off scripts (written by Mail reporters) about her. Meghan has the text messages to prove what was really happening between herself and Toxic Tom, and the Mail has… questions about Meghan’s penmanship, basically.

Anyway, I’ve been wondering about this hearing all week – I’ve wondered if the hearing is why the Sussexes announced their refusal to work with British tabloids, and if it explains the timing of that statement. I’ve been wondering if this hearing will end up being the first in a long line of “wins” for the Sussexes too. Omid Scobie did a thread about it on Twitter which I found very informative:

The first hearing in the Duchess of Sussex’s lawsuits against the Mail on Sunday will take place today. It is being held virtually in front of the High Court’s Mr Justice Warby (of the Queen’s Bench Division) at 10:30am.

Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan will be listening to the hearing when the duchess’ legal team is representing. I’m told that the couple have been encouraged to see truths beginning to come out and see today’s hearing as a procedural step in a longer legal process.

Today’s hearing was requested by the Mail on Sunday and the paper is hoping that it will result in allegations of acting dishonestly struck from the litigation. They are not disputing the allegation that the paper selectively chose parts of the letter (to fit a certain narrative)

There are still further steps needed before a trial can begin. The next stage will be a Case Management Conference, which is a chance for the court to identify and understand what the real issues in dispute are and to consider whether they can be narrowed.

[From Omid Scobie’s Twitter]

LOL, this checks out, right? “Today’s hearing was requested by the Mail on Sunday and the paper is hoping that it will result in allegations of acting dishonestly struck from the litigation.” How dare the Sussexes suggest that the Mail acted dishonestly [even if the Mail does not dispute that in many instances they did not report truthfully]. HOW DARE THEY! Yeah, I’m with the Sussexes – I hope this will be the first domino to fall in a larger tabloid-wig-snatching.

Photos courtesy of The Sun, Backgrid.

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