Further judgment in the MGN litigation

This morning, Mr Justice Fancourt, the managing judge, handed down his judgment in respect of the costs incurred in relation to the trial last year.

All the current 4th Wave claimants of the litigation were awarded their costs for the generic case on an indemnity basis. Indeed, the judgment stated that:

“the defence that MGN ran in the proceedings was supported by dishonesty of those who were running the litigation within MGN and by some of the witnesses called by it, and was an attempt to continue to conceal the extent of the unlawful and illegal activity between 1995 and 2011. It also involved an attempt to row back from the extent of the findings of Mann J in the Gulati case, which increased the costs. Disclosure that should have been given sooner was wrongly resisted until a relatively late stage of the proceedings. It is difficult to imagine a clearer case for costs to be paid on an indemnity basis.”

The judge later ordered that
a. MGN shall pay the 4th wave claimants their common costs of the generic trial issues to be assessed on the indemnity basis.
b. MGN shall pay the 4th wave claimants their common costs of the authenticity of documents challenge resulting from the notice dated 10 March 2023, to be assessed on the indemnity basis.

You can read the full judgment here.