Mrs Vardy unsuccessfully sued Mrs Rooney for libel in 2022, and lawyers for the pair returned to court for a further dispute over how much Mrs Vardy should pay in legal costs as a result. At a hearing in October last year, Mrs Vardy’s barristers told a costs judge that Mrs Rooney and her legal team committed “serious misconduct” by understating some of her costs to “attack the other party’s costs”. A judge found no misconduct had been committed, and Mrs Vardy is now appealing against the decision.
Mrs Rooney is opposing the appeal, with her lawyers describing it as “misconceived”. In written submissions for a hearing on Monday, Jamie Carpenter KC, for Mrs Vardy, said Mrs 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. In 2019, Mrs Rooney, the wi.