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Rebekah Vardy accused Coleen Rooney of “deliberately” understating her legal costs during the 2022 Wagatha libel case, but a judge has ruled that Rooney’s lawyers did not commit misconduct. Senior costs judge Andrew Gordon-Saker found that Rooney’s legal team had not committed wrongdoing although there was a “failure to be transparent”. However, this was not “sufficiently unreasonable or improper” to constitute misconduct. Mrs Vardy lost that case after a judge ruled it was “substantially true” she had leaked Rooney’s private information to the press and was ordered to pay 90% of Rooney’s costs – originally estimated at £540,000, but now standing at £1.8m.
Now, barristers for both parties have returned to the High Court in a dispute over how much should be paid. This week’s hearing, which concludes on Wednesday, is dealing with points of principle before a line-by-line assessment of costs. Neither Mrs Vardy nor Mrs Rooney attended court on Tuesday.
In a ruling on Tuesday, the judge found “on balance and, I have to say, only just”, that Mrs Rooney’s legal team had not committed wrongdoing. He said it was therefore “not an appropriate case” to reduce the amount of money that Mrs Vardy should pay. Mrs Vardy’s barrister claimed in written submissions that Mrs Rooney had “deliberately misled” Mrs Vardy and the court with previous estimates of how much money and time she had spent on the case, which he claimed was “serious misconduct”.
Mrs Rooney’s legal bill was said in October 2022 to total £1,667,860 but has now risen to £1,833,907. Mrs Vardy’s KC Jamie Carpenter claimed that Mrs Rooney’s total included costs for a lawyer staying “at the Nobu Hotel, incurring substantial dinner and drinks charges as well as mini bar charges” which Mr Dunne noted had been widely reported in media as “evidence of the defendant wildly spending”. However, Mr Dunne stated that a “modest” hotel had been booked for the lawyer, but on the first night, there was no WiFi or working shower, so he transferred to the Nobu after Mrs Rooney’s agent said she could get reduced rates.
The judge rejected one of Mrs Vardy’s claims that it was “unreasonable” for Mrs Rooney to use Stewarts, a London-based law firm, and that she should have sought one near to where she lived in the north-west of England. Mr Gordon-Saker said that most of the firms who specialise in defamation are based in central London. The judge also rejected Mrs Vardy’s claim that it had been unreasonable for Mrs Rooney to consult her barrister, David Sherborne, on 30 occasions, at a cost of nearly £500,000
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