News Corp faces hacking lawsuits in US

News Corp could be exposed to further legal action in the US after Mark Lewis, the lawyer representing dozens of public figures in the UK phone-hacking scandal, said he was planning to file three civil lawsuits in American courts.

The move marks the first legal actions in the US in the affair which has engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s media company. News Corp is being investigated by the FBI and the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Lewis said the legal actions would be launched by two sports figures and a US citizen. All three individuals allege their voicemails were illegally intercepted when they were on US soil. “I will be having a series of meetings regarding matters relating to phone-hacking claims against the News of the World, which has issues in American jurisdictions,” he said. Lewis is set to meet Norman Siegel, his American partner and former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, to discuss US law and how it applies to phone hacking.