By bizn_fun 
Early on in this case, barrister David Sherborne told the court about the individual claimants’ “personal watershed moments” – the point at which they found out what they say is information that led to them bringing this case forward.
These are important as, alongside strongly denying wrongdoing, part of Associated Newspapers’ defence is that these claims have been made too late – as the law indicates this sort of case should be brought within six years.
The six-year rule
The claimants should have known, or could have found out, if they had a potential case before October 2016, six years before the legal action was launched in October 2022, ANL argues.
However, Sherborne argues alleged wrongdoing by ANL was deliberately “concealed” – an exception that allows claims to be brought outside the standard six-year period.
From the claimants’ skeleton argument – the summary of their legal case, a 180-page document that has been submitted to the court – details of these watershed moments were outlined.
Email from Harry
For Doreen Lawrence, this was prompted initially by an email from Prince Harry suggesting there was information she should know, the court documents say.
She then had a meeting with two lawyers.
“Most importantly, she learned at her Personal Watershed Moment that private investigators had confessed to criminal activities aimed at secretly stealing and exploiting information from victims, including her – this information itself had only emerged in late 2021,” the document states.