A NEW COURTROOM row has broken out between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney over outstanding legal costs.
In October 2022 Vardy was ordered to pay Rooney’s legal fees, a bill totalling over £1.5 million, after she lost the high-profile ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel case.
The case dates back to a claim that Rooney, the wife of former English footballer Wayne Rooney, made about Vardy in a viral social media post in October 2019.
Rooney said in the post that she had carried out a “sting operation” and accused Vardy of leaking “false stories” about her private life to the press.
Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, rejected the claim and sued Rooney for libel.
A judge ruled, after a high-profile trial, that there was enough evidence to prove Rooney’s claims were true and ordered Vardy to pay 90% of Rooney’s legal fees.
In court yesterday, during a new dispute over the legal fees, a British High Court judge heard that the total of Rooney’s legal bill was more than £1.8 million, of which Vardy must pay approximately £1.65 million of.
In written submissions for a hearing yesterday Vardy’s solicitor, Jamie Carpenter KC, noted that the bill included cost for staying at the luxury Nobu Hotel in London and “substantial dinner and drinks charges as well as mini bar charges”.
The lawyer argued that the dispute was “intractable” by the magnitude of costs associated with the bill, a number of accounting errors and the “extraordinary nature” of some of the claims.
Carpenter said the bill was “drawn without sufficient care” and had “a ‘kitchen sink’ approach”, and included “over £120,000 of costs to which Mrs Rooney has no entitlement”.
He also said that Rooney’s barrister, David Sherborne, “charged total fees over the course of the proceedings of £497,850”. Carpenter claimed Rooney’s budget, provided to the court, was three times less than what the total costs amounted to.
He accused Rooney of “deliberately” understating her previous accounts and had been “misleading”.
“There is no other way to construe it,” his submission, on behalf of Vardy, said.
Solicitor Robin Dunne, representing Rooney yesterday, rejected claims that she had misled the court, adding that the accusations were “illogical”.
He added that Rooney’s budget, previously provided to the court which was substantially lower than the actual bill, was “not designed to be an accurate or binding representation” of her overall legal costs.
Dunne claimed that Vardy 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 Vardy’s mouth to now claim that Mrs Rooney’s costs, a great deal of which were caused directly by her conduct, are unreasonable.”
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.”
In court today, Dunne told a judge that the minibar charges, totalling £7, were for two bottles of water. The total food and minibar tab ran up to £225, he said.
He claimed that the charge for the Nobu Hotel was because the original room a solicitor representing Rooney was staying in, located at a different hotel, did not have working internet or shower facilities.
He said: “He (the solicitor) booked a modest hotel but on the first night of staying there did not have any working wifi or shower. He was offered to stay at the Nobu by the defendant’s agent, who has a preferential rate.”
He added that the solicitor paid £295 per night to stay at the hotel when going rates are more than £600 a night.
Carpenter, Vardy’s solicitor, said in response: “We do say that the defendant’s costs are extravagant, but the line-by-line issues are for another occasion.”
The hearing is dealing with points of principle before a line-by-line assessment of costs, which is due to take place at a later date.
The hearing before Senior Costs Judge Andrew Gordon-Saker, which neither Rooney nor Vardy have attended so far, is expected to conclude tomorrow.
Additional reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill
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