A lawyer representing the bulk of claimants in the hacking case against News Corp.'s UK newspaper business said the UK company, News International, faces 46 more civil lawsuits in British courts, according to various newspaper reports on Friday.
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The lawyer, Hugh Tomlinson, told the High Court in London on Friday that he had 44 new cases filed and that another two had been submitted via another lawyer, the Guardian newspaper reported.
Tomlinson also said that London police identified 1,174 possible victims during their investigation of phone hacking by News of the World, the now-defunct tabloid owned by News International, the News Corp. -owned Wall Street Journal wrote.
This would bring the total number of settled and unresolved cases to more than 100 since the revelations last summer of phone hacking allegations first at the News of the World and then, as the investigation extended, allegations of bribery and email hacking at daily tabloid the Sun and daily broadsheet paper the Times.
News International already settled around 60 cases, among them actor Jude Law and UK politician John Prescott in the scandal involving voicemail hacking by News of the World staff.
A lawyer for News Corp.'s UK newspaper unit, Michael Silverleaf, told the Wall Street Journal that the company was determined to settle all possible civil suits.