Coleen Rooneys lawyers accuse Rebekah Vardy of deplorable conduct in Wagatha Christie libel battle as pair return to High Court in row over £1.8m legal bill
Coleen Rooneys lawyers have accused Rebekah Vardy of deplorable conduct as the Wagatha Christie libel battle between the warring WAGs came back to court.
Coleen Rooneys lawyers have accused Rebekah Vardy of deplorable conduct as the Wagatha Christie libel battle between the warring WAGs came back to court.
The wife of former England captain Wayne Rooney is facing a challenge at Londons High Court from Rebekah, who wants to halve a £1.8million legal bill she faces.
Rebekah, married to Waynes former Three Lions team-mate Jamie Vardy, lost a legal action in July 2022, having sued Coleen over claims about leaking stories.
She is now demanding a 50 per cent cut in the settlement, as it was alleged that Coleen was charging for a lawyers stay at a five-star Nobu Hotel.
Coleen accused Rebekah in 2019 of sharing her private information from social media to the Press - an allegation which judge Mrs Justice Steyn later ruled was substantially true.
Coleen Rooney, pictured outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London in May 2022, accused fellow WAG Rebekah Vardy of leaking stories about her to the media
Rebekah Vardy, seen outside Londons High Court in July 2022, wants to halve the £1.8million legal bill she faces in her Wagatha Christie libel battle with Coleen Rooney
The legal bill is said to include charges for a lawyers stay at Nobu Hotel London (pictured)
And in October 2022, the judge ordered Rebekah to pay 90 per cent of her fellow WAGs legal costs, with an initial £800,000 to be handed over.
The womens lawyers have been back in court in London in a dispute over the amount to be paid, as lawyers for Rebekah said Coleens claimed legal bill totalled £1,833,906.89.
Rebekahs lawyers argue that the opposing legal team’s estimate of their costs was deliberately misleading, and that it amounted to a deliberate deception of both Vardy’s side and of the court.
Coleens representatives say it is ‘frankly outrageous’ to accuse them of dishonesty.
Robin Dunne, representing Coleen today, said in his written submissions that Rebekah had shown deplorable conduct in the case, and that costs could have been lower if she conducted this litigation appropriately.
He said: This was a libel claim which Mrs Vardy chose to launch, despite knowing that the Instagram post was true.
Mrs Vardy refused to engage with Mrs Rooney to try and avoid these proceedings and by her conduct meant that significant additional costs were required to be incurred by Mrs Rooney.
It sits ill in Mrs Vardys mouth to now claim that Mrs Rooneys costs, a great deal of which were caused directly by her conduct, are unreasonable.
He said that his clients budget was not designed to be an accurate or binding representation of her overall legal costs.
He added: There has been no misconduct here. Had Mrs Vardy conducted this matter in a reasonable fashion, Mrs Rooney would be confined to her budget and would have recovered no more absent good reason.
Coleen Rooney, pictured with her husband Wayne rRooney outside the Royal Courts of Justice in July 2022, is said to have run up a £1.8million legal bill, the High Court heard today
Rebekah Vardy, seen outside the Royal Courts of Justice in May 2022 with Leicester City striker husband Jamie Vardy, is challenging the amount she will have to pay Coleen
And in court, he said it was illogical to say that we misled anyone.
Jamie Carpenter KC, representing Rebekah, said that the purported £1.8million legal bill included costs for a lawyer staying at the Nobu Hotel, incurring substantial dinner and drinks charges as well as mini bar charges.
Reports today suggested that among the charges were £2,000 for her solicitors stay at Londons five-star Nobu Hotel and a £225 food and minibar tab.
Mr Carpenter said: The costs dispute has been rendered particularly intractable by the sheer magnitude of the costs claimed by Mrs Rooney, in absolute terms and when compared to her agreed costs budget, the number of errors in the bill and the extraordinary nature of some of the costs claimed.
The bill, drawn at 100 per cent of the costs claimed totals £1,833,906.89.
Mr Carpenter said the bill was drawn without sufficient care and had a kitchen sink approach, and included over £120,000 of costs to which Coleen had no entitlement.
He also said that Coleens barrister David Sherborne charged total fees over the course of the proceedings of £497,850.
In the viral social media post in October 2019 at the heart of the libel claim, Coleen said she had carried out a months-long sting operation and accused Rebekah of leaking information about her private life to the press.
Coleen publicly claimed Rebekahs account was the source behind three stories in the Sun newspaper featuring fake details she had posted on her private Instagram profile.
These featured her travelling to Mexico for a gender selection procedure, her planning to return to TV and the basement flooding at her home.
Following the high-profile trial, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in Coleens favour, finding it was likely that Rebekahs agent Caroline Watt had passed information to the Sun and that she knew of and condoned this behaviour.
Lawyers for Coleen Rooney, seen here outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London in May 2022, today accused Rebekah Vardy of showing deplorable conduct in the libel case
Legal representatives for Rebekah Vardy, seen outside the Royal Courts of Justice in May 2022, now say the opposing legal team’s estimate of their costs was deliberately misleading
Coleen Rooneys barrister David Sherborne (pictured) charged total fees over the course of the proceedings of £497,850, the High Court in London has been told
The judge added that Rebekah had actively engaged, directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account, sending her screenshots of Mrs Rooneys posts, drawing attention to items of potential interest to the press and answering additional queries raised by the press via Ms Watt.
Rebekah always denied any wrongdoing, but she was described as an untrustworthy witness who was likely to have destroyed potentially crucial evidence on purpose in Mrs Justice Steyns strident judgement on the case.
The latest hearing before senior costs judge Andrew Gordon-Saker, which was not attended by Coleen or Rebekah today, will conclude on Wednesday.
In May, senior judge Andrew Gordon-Saker reportedly told Coleen and Rebekahs lawyers to come to an agreement, warning: This could go on and on.
