Head of Bindmans’ Media and Information Law team, Tamsin Allen has provided a comment featured in multiple news outlets’ coverage of the settlement of Hugh Grant’s privacy case against the publisher of the Sun newspaper, News Group Newspapers (NGN).

Hugh Grant brought a claim against the publisher alleging journalists had used private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house. The actor has reported that he agreed to the settlement on the basis that taking the case to trial could have potentially resulted in him facing a multimillion-pound legal bill.

In the BBC’s article Hugh Grant settles privacy case against Sun publisher and Independent’s article Why was Hugh Grant ‘at risk of £10m in costs’ in case against The Sun publisher?, Tamsin explains that, at trial, the loser usually pays the winner’s costs but a rule designed to encourage settlements before trial can change this, highlighting: “When the newspaper makes an offer to pay a certain amount of money in damages, the judge doesn’t see the offer. Costs almost always exceed damages, sometimes by hundreds of thousands of pounds. So, instead of receiving damages, the winner can find themselves paying out enormous sums to their beaten opponent.”

Tamsin Allen is a highly experienced media lawyer with a focus on defamation and privacy, whistleblowing, information and data protection, copyright and human rights. Tamsin previously set up and acted for the Claimant Group in the hacking litigation against News Group Newspapers and has represented very large numbers of high-profile people in phone-hacking claims.