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Brabners’ litigation team features in new Disney+ Wagatha Christie docuseries
2 min read
Sport, Litigation & Disputes, Company News, Reputation Management & Defamation, Brabners Personal
Our lawyers feature in the three-part Disney+ documentary Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story, available to stream now.
Members of Coleen Rooney’s legal team — led by our Head of Litigation, Paul Lunt — are interviewed extensively in episode three of the new series, which gives an inside look into one of the most significant and contentious libel cases in recent history.
Set in our new Grade A Manchester office in Barbirolli Square, the interviews provide further detail regarding the defence strategy behind the two-year libel case. The team successfully defended Mrs Rooney after she was taken to court by Rebekah Vardy, having claimed that Vardy and her PR agent had been habitually leaking private information about the Rooney family to The Sun newspaper.
The high-profile trial — which assumed the popular #WagathaChristie moniker — ended in May 2022, with the judge ruling in Rooney’s favour. Vardy was subsequently ordered to pay up to £1.5m in legal fees.
Brabners’ original podcast series Rooney v Vardy: The Breakdown is also available to stream on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, having won the Outstanding Marketing Innovation Award at last year’s Legal Innovation Awards.
Paul Lunt said: “Of all the high-profile cases we have handled as a team, Coleen’s was easily one of the most challenging — not only as we were appointed part-way into the process but also in the unparalleled levels of media attention and coverage it generated. By the time the case got to trial, that coverage had become an important factor in the strategy we developed to secure victory both in the High Court and the court of public opinion.
It has been an incredibly rewarding experience to revisit the case for Disney, and I’m pleased that we could provide some fresh insight into what really went on behind the scenes and how the case developed into the national news story we know today.”
Our success in the Wagatha Christie case represented the latest in a series of positive and high-profile instructions for our litigation team, which successfully defended England cricket captain Ben Stokes against charges of affray, as well as spearheading his successful privacy claim against The Sun newspaper.
Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story premiered on Disney+ on Wednesday 18 October 2023.
If you’re looking for more behind-the-scenes access to the trial, look no further than our award-winning podcast series ‘Rooney v Vardy: The Breakdown’, available now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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