A former tabloid editor who was once the British prime minister’s media aide is suing News International over its refusal to pay his legal fees, his lawyers said on Friday.
Andy Coulson’s law firm DLA Piper said in a statement it began proceedings against Rupert Murdoch’s News International for reneging on an agreement to pay legal costs. Coulson is among those who have been arrested in the phone hacking scandal.
Coulson, a former News of the World editor who later went on to serve as British Prime Minister David Cameron’s top media aide, resigned as the phone hacking scandal began to boil over earlier this year. News International has not commented on whether it was paying Coulson’s fees and declined to comment.
News International has also refused to confirm in the past whether or not it is paying legal fees for Coulson.
The development comes as lawyers from the US and Britain said they were looking to see if US courts can take up a case against Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the parent company of News International.
If a case is filed, it would broaden the scope of a scandal that has shaken the media mogul’s empire and potentially expose it to greater financial penalties.
British attorney Mark Lewis revealed few details, but suggested the legal action could begin by taking depositions from News Corp officials and focus on alleged “corrupt practices.” He said he had retained US lawyer Norman Siegel, who represents families of many Sept. 11, 2001, attack victims, to take on News Corp.
However, while Lewis predicted the first hearing could occur within two or three months, Siegel downplayed the prospect of immediate action, saying he’d only been asked “to explore whether there’s legal options.”
Lewis “asked us to do the research. That’s what we’re doing,” Siegel said.
News Corp declined comment.
The media conglomerate is best known in the US for its properties such as Fox News Channel, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal. However, it’s been under pressure in Britain since July over revelations its flagship Sunday tabloid, the News of the World, routinely hacked into people’s phones in its quest for scoops.
The now-defunct paper is accused of systematically intercepting private voicemail of Britons in the public eye, including, notoriously, a teenage murder victim whose family Lewis now represents.
The New York-based company has already been forced to abandon its bid for full control of satellite broadcaster BSkyB amid the scandal and faces a multimillion-pound legal bill to settle victims’ claims. That bill could climb if cases were brought in US venues, where penalties and settlements are far more generous.
However, one law professor said such a maneuver “seems like a stretch.”
Typically, lawyers file a class-action lawsuit first and then solicit depositions afterward, said Chris Fairman, a law professor at Ohio State University. While the rules of US civil procedure don’t prohibit the reversal, such a move is highly unusual, he said, describing Lewis’ proposed actions as “a fishing expedition.”
Although it’s been alleged — in a thinly sourced story carried by a rival UK tabloid — that the News of the World sought to target the phones of Sept. 11 victims, Lewis said that wasn’t the focus of his US legal thrust.
No evidence has surfaced to back up the Sept. 11 claim and News Corp has dismissed it as “anonymous speculation.”
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