36 phone-hacking lawsuits settled

London: News Corp.'s British newspaper unit settled 36 lawsuits by phone-hacking victims including actor Jude Law, football player Ashley Cole and UK lawmakers, admitting as part of the deals that senior managers knew about the practice and tried to conceal it.

The admissions by London-based News International are part of a "wide ranging" settlement of most of the 60 lawsuits filed by victims of voice-mail interceptions at its now-defunct News of the World tabloid.

As part of the deal, News International agreed to a range of cash payments to victims and gave more details about phone-hacking, including the number of journalists involved, three lawyers representing hacking victims said in a statement ahead of a hearing yesterday before Judge Geoffrey Vos in London.

News International "is ready, willing and able to settle" all the claims and a trial shouldn't be necessary, company lawyer Michael Silverleaf said at the hearing. The compensation is "generous" he said.

The settlement amounts are larger than those normally paid in privacy-violation cases, according to yesterday's statement. They range from £5,000 (Dh28,219) for less-serious phone-hacking instances to about £100,000 for the most-offensive cases, a person familiar with the matter said.

The agreements come about a month before the first civil trial in the matter is scheduled to begin. There are 10 cases that are prepared to go to trial, including those filed by sports agent Sky Andrew, comedian Steve Coogan and Welsh pop star Charlotte Church, who sang at News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch's wedding in 1999 when she was 13 years old, lawyer Hugh Tomlinson said. Vos said a trial is still important for resolving various issues stemming from phone hacking to help settle future cases.

Private messages

"The claimants themselves now know much more about what private messages were listened to, who intercepted their messages and who authorised it," according to the statement from the victims' attorneys. The information provided by News International also covers "who was paid and how much".

Evidence uncovered in civil cases by actor Sienna Miller and other celebrity victims in 2010 revealed the extent of phone hacking at the News of the World, prompting News Corp. to shutter the tabloid in July and Chairman Rupert Murdoch to be called to give testimony to lawmakers the same month. Police in London have said about 800 people were targeted by the paper.

News International, which previously denied phone hacking was widespread, apologised to victims in court yesterday. The company admitted hacking Cole's phone and having him followed by a private investigator. The company also agreed to pay £50,000 to settle with Sadie Frost, Law's ex-wife, and also settled with former UK deputy prime minister John Prescott.

"News Group's misguided decision to defend claims aggressively made matters worse," said Tamsin Allen, a lawyer for victims including UK lawmaker Chris Bryant. "News Group have finally started to see sense and agreed to apologise and to pay compensation and costs in the majority of the remaining claims."

Bryant settled his case against the company for £30,000, a lawyer said at a court hearing yesterday.

As part of the settlements, News International will continue searching its email archives for information about the interceptions of communications, and new claims can be brought in circumstances where more wrongdoing emerges in the future, the lawyers said.

"This was important because attempts are being made to reconstruct email archives which had been destroyed by News Group in an apparent attempt to cover up wrongdoing," the lawyers said in the statement.