Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy’s “Wagatha Christie” saga is back in the High Court as the pair continue to fight over the costs of their legal war.
The two footballers’ wives have been at loggerheads for six years, since Rooney took to Instagram to break the bombshell news that Vardy had been leaking stories about her to the media.
Vardy sued for libel, but lost disastrously as a High Court judge concluded the allegation that she leaked information to journalists was true.
Vardy’s legal team has now accused Rooney’s lawyers of misconduct by “very substantially” understating some of her legal costs.
They say it was wrong of Rooney’s side to minimise their own costs while attacking the other side’s level of spending.
Vardy lost this argument at an earlier hearing, but has now appealled. Rooney’s team say the argument is “misconceived”.
Jamie Carpenter KC, for Vardy, said Rooney “very substantially understated” her legal costs by around 40% in her budget, known as a “precedent H”, in 2021.
He said: “At all times throughout the costs budgeting process, Mrs Rooney concealed from Mrs Vardy and the court that the incurred costs in her precedents H were much less than her true incurred costs.”
He continued: “Although the costs judge was critical of Mrs Rooney’s lawyers for their lack of transparency, he held ‘on balance’ and ‘only just’ that there was no misconduct. It is respectfully submitted that he was wrong to do so.”
Mr Carpenter said a “proportionate sanction” for the alleged misconduct would be to limit the amount of Mrs Rooney’s legal costs up to August 2021 to be paid by Mrs Vardy to £220,955.07.
Vardy, the wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, was ordered to pay 90 per cent of Rooney’s costs after losing the libel trial, with an order to pay an initial £800,000.
Rooney’s claimed legal bill is £1,833,906.89 – more than three times her “agreed costs budget of £540,779.07”, which Mr Carpenter said was “disproportionate”.
He continued that the earlier “understatement” of some costs was “improper and unreasonable” and “involved knowingly misleading Mrs Vardy and the court”, meaning it should be reduced.
Robin Dunne, representing Mrs Rooney at the previous hearing, said the argument that the amount owed should be reduced was “misconceived” and that the budget was “not designed to be an accurate or binding representation” of her overall legal costs.
Senior Costs Judge Andrew Gordon-Saker found “on balance and, I have to say, only just” that Mrs Rooney’s legal team had not committed wrongdoing, and therefore it was “not an appropriate case” to reduce the amount of money Mrs Vardy should pay.
He said that while there was a “failure to be transparent”, it was not “sufficiently unreasonable or improper” to constitute misconduct.
On Monday, Mr Carpenter claimed that Mrs Rooney “declared 56% of the true level of her incurred costs” in her original budget, submitted in February 2021, which said she had incurred costs of around £181,000 when she had actually incurred just under £324,000.
He continued that in revised budgets, submitted for a preliminary hearing in August 2021, Mrs Rooney claimed to have incurred costs of around £221,000, against Mrs Vardy’s incurred costs of just over £469,000.
But Mr Carpenter said Mrs Rooney’s full legal bill up to the hearing showed she had incurred costs of more than £367,000, around 40% more.
In his written submissions, Benjamin Williams KC, for Mrs Rooney, said her budget was “properly and correctly completed” and there was “no tenable case” of misconduct.
He said: “Mrs Rooney’s primary position is that, in this, she and her solicitors were adopting the right approach; but even if this is not correct, it was a reasonable approach.”
He continued: “A party is not required to certify what they have actually spent, but rather the ‘costs which it would be reasonable and proportionate for my client to incur in this litigation’.”
He added it would be “unjust and disproportionate” to limit the amount Mrs Vardy should pay.
The hearing before Mr Justice Cavanagh and acting Senior Costs Judge Jason Rowley is expected to conclude later on Monday.
