Prince Harry’s Legal Team Criticized for Filing Irrelevant Evidence in Claim Against Home Office

A High Court judge has criticized Prince Harry's legal team for filing irrelevant evidence in support of the Duke's claim against the Home Office.

The judge, Mr Justice Swift, made this ruling following two preliminary hearings held last month.

He stated that evidence filed in support of the Duke's claim included irrelevant evidence and should be excluded from the proceedings.

The judge also rejected submissions from Prince Harry that the reasons for this conclusion should be in the public part of his judgment.

He stated that this would defeat the purpose of the exercise while serving no public interest.

Legal proceedings do not exist for the purpose of permitting parties to put irrelevant matters in the public domain, and the court must be astute to ensure that proceedings, legitimately pursued, do not become the occasion to publicize irrelevant material.

Mr Justice Swift's judgment handed out on Thursday allowed the bid to redact documents.

Stressing that the judgment simply focuses on which information should be kept confidential rather than on the merit of Harry's claim, the judge said that some of the information relied on concerns security arrangements put in place either for the claimant or for other public figures in the United Kingdom.

For obvious reasons, information on such matters usually remains confidential.

The judge explained that editing out information from court documents would avoid the risk of putting information into the public domain concerning security arrangements made on past occasions, and the general approach to whether and if so what arrangements should be made, may impair the effectiveness of arrangements in place now, on which may be put in place in the future.

Information about these matters would self-evidently be of interest to anyone wishing to harm a person within the scope of the security arrangements and would assist them to piece together previous practice with a view to anticipating present or future security provision.

The judge also criticized Prince Harry's legal team for breaking the embargo of the judgment, calling this move entirely unacceptable.

He stated that it should have been obvious that what happened was a breach and that it needed to be reported to the judge as soon as possible.

He also criticized the team's failure to apologize to the court.

In related news, Buckingham Palace shared details about next week's memorial service for Prince Philip, who died last year.

The memorial service will pay tribute to his life of service, support for over 700 charitable organizations, and his greatest legacy, the Duke of Edinburgh's award.

Quoting sources, a royal expert said Queen Elizabeth still hopes to attend.

Alongside members of the royal family, including Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Cambridges, Wessexers, and Prince Andrew, guests will include Prince Philip's wider family and friends and over 500 representatives of the Duke's patronages and charities.

However, the statement did not mention Prince Harry, who earlier this month said he won't be returning to the UK for Prince Philip's memorial service.