January marks a key month for the Duchess of Sussex in her High Court privacy case against Associated Newspapers Ltd.
The court is due to hear an application for summary judgment – a legal step which would see the case resolved without a trial – when Meghan's legal team will argue that ANL's defence has no prospect of succeeding at a trial.
If successful, the case will then be closed, negating the need for a full trial.
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Meghan, 39, is suing Associated Newspapers (ANL), publisher of the Mail On Sunday and MailOnline, over articles from February 2019, which featured parts of a "private and confidential" letter from the Duchess to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018.
In October, a trial date provisionally set for 11 January 2021 was vacated and a new date is set to be confirmed for autumn 2021 after Meghan's lawyers gave a "confidential ground" as to why a postponement was needed.
A judge ruled in September that the Mail On Sunday can rely on a recent royal biography Finding Freedom in its defence to Meghan's privacy claim.
But the Duchess lost the bid to appeal such an inclusion during the hearing in October.
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© Photo: Getty ImagesMeghan's legal team has applied for a summary judgment
Meghan previously won a bid in to keep secret the identities of five friends who gave an anonymous interview to PEOPLE magazine.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved to the US with their son Archie after stepping back from royal duties in March 2020.
In December 2020, Meghan settled a claim against Splash News and Picture Agency, with the agency agreeing not to take any photos of her, her husband Harry, or their son Archie, should it come out of administration, the High Court heard.
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