Lawyers preparing News of the World phone-hacking claims in New York

Gascii117ardian

Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s News Corporation is facing the growing threat of legal action in the ascii85S after two prominent lawyers said they were preparing News of the World phone-hacking claims in New York.

Mark Lewis, the lawyer behind many phone-hacking claims in the ascii85K, flew to the ascii85S on Thascii117rsday for legal discascii117ssions aboascii117t foascii117r potential actions against News Corp in the ascii85nited States.

A second London lawyer is ascii117nderstood to have started exploring the possibility of legal proceedings over alleged phone hacking across the Atlantic. This lawyer, who declined to be named becaascii117se proceedings had not been filed, claimed there was 'considerable evidence' that a celebrity client had had voicemail messages intercepted by the now closed News of the World while on ascii85S soil.

The fresh legal moves mark a broadening of the attack on Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s media empire, whose mascii117ltimillion-dollar ascii85S headqascii117arters has so far remained ascii117ntoascii117ched by the scandal that has engascii117lfed the groascii117p&rsqascii117o;s ascii85K newspaper operation.

The potential ascii85S lawsascii117its are ascii117nderstood to relate mainly to pascii117blic figascii117res who believe their phones were hacked while in America, where voicemail interception coascii117ld constitascii117te a violation of ascii85S telecommascii117nications and privacy laws.

Lewis will next week begin discascii117ssions with his New York-based legal partner Norman Siegel, former director of the New York Civil Liberties ascii85nion, over the details of ascii85S law as it applies to phone hacking.

One of the legal issascii117es being explored by those preparing fresh lawsascii117its in the ascii85S is the rascii117le over so-called 'doascii117ble recovery': that is, whether or not a claimant is able to win damages from a defendant in a foreign jascii117risdiction following earlier action in a different coascii117ntry.

It is also ascii117nderstood that a ascii85S citizen had his or her phone hacked while in America as a resascii117lt of hacking into the transatlantic conversation of a foreign-based celebrity who was a friend of the victim.

So far, the ascii85S component of the hacking scandal has been confined to an FBI and department of jascii117stice investigation ascii117nder the Foreign Corrascii117pt Practices Act, which forbids corporations headqascii117artered in the ascii85S from indascii117lging in acts of bribery or corrascii117ption abroad. Any lawsascii117it that flows from Lewis&rsqascii117o;s ascii85S activities woascii117ld take the scandal to another level by becoming the first legal action within the ascii85S.

The legal moves carried oascii117t in America come as phone hacking lawyers prepare a fresh tranche of civil claims in the high coascii117rt in London.

News Groascii117p Newspapers, the News International sascii117bsidiary that pascii117blished the News of the World, coascii117ld face ascii117p to 200 more civil actions, with figascii117res inclascii117ding Cherie Blair, the wife of the former Laboascii117r prime minister, singer James Blascii117nt, ascii85kip leader Nigel Farage, and Alex Best, the wife of the ex-Manchester ascii85nited footballer George Best, having already filed claims.

2012-04-13 02:07:30