News International will pay “well over £1 million” and legal costs to News of the World phone hacking victims, the Guardian reported. The specific amount is “unknown, but is likely to rise to more than £1 million.”
The Guardian noted that the 37 claimed “senior employees and directors at News Group Newspapers,” News International’s publisher, knew about phone hacking and tried to cover it up. News Group Newspapers settled but without “admitting or denying these claims.” According to the Guardian,“A total of 37 cases have been settled, with 19 individuals not wishing to make a statement or have details of their settlement made public.”
The Guardian published here a breakdown of the victims and their settlements.
The victims include actor Jude Law, whose phone was hacked “between January 2003 and August 2006” for sixteen published articles. We wrote in July 2011 when Law filed lawsuit against News Corp-owned newspaper the Sun accusing the paper of phone hacking, separate from his lawsuit against News of the World for phone hacking. According to the AFP, Law’s January 2012 settlement was for “hacking by the News of the World tabloid.” Christian Science Monitor reported that News Group Newspapers “admitted that articles in the Sun tabloid misused Law’s private information — although it didn’t go as far as to admit hacking.”
We wrote in May 2011 when News of the World paid Law’s ex-girlfriend Sienna Miller $162,500 in damages after admitting that the newspaper published 11 stories in 2005 and 2006 from hacking her phone.
Hat Tip: Editor and Publisher