Phone hacking: News International could face more than 500 claims

Source: The Guardian

News International could be facing more than 500 civil claims for damages from alleged victims of News of the World phone hacking, the high court has heard.

At a case management conference at the high court in London on Friday, Mr Justice Vos also ordered News International to "preserve" the company iPhones of two senior executives and their email contents.

It is understood the request for access to the iPhone emails is related to allegations of concealment over phone hacking and would not point to evidence of hacking beyond the time when private investigator Glenn Mulcaire was jailed. "This could be very significant," said a source.

The case management conference was called to discuss budgets for the second tranche of civil claims against News International and heard that the company believes it could face up to 520 claims in total.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jun/01/phone-hacking-news-international-500-claims