London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

News of the World publisher fails in bid to end phone-hacking claims

News of the World publisher fails in bid to end phone-hacking claims

Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers asked for litigation to be brought to an end 15 years after scandal broke
The publisher of the News of the World has failed in its attempt to force a deadline on potential victims of the phone-hacking scandal to make claims against it.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN), which published the now defunct newspaper as well as the Sun, asked for litigation to be brought to an end 15 years after the scandal broke.

About 1,028 claims have already been settled, plus an additional 358 applications that were made to a compensation scheme run by parent company News International between 2011 and 2016.

But NGN’s lawyers were rebuffed when they argued at a hearing in London that it is time to impose a final deadline on potential victims to file new claims against the organisation.

The failed bid comes as the Sun recorded a loss of £51m last year. NGN spent £49m on legal fees and damages relating to historical phone-hacking allegations in the year to 27 June 2021. This compares with the £80m NGN spent the previous year.

There could be as many as “20,000 to 25,000 potential victims of NGN’s unlawful information gathering” and there should be no cut-off date, lawyers representing a number of victims argued.

David Sherborne, representing the claimant group, said NGN’s application for a final cut-off date was “misconceived”.

He argued that the “vast majority of victims do not know they have a claim due to the intentionally covert nature of NGN’s unlawful information gathering and its deliberate concealment of the same”.

Anthony Hudson QC, for NGN, told the court on Thursday: “We say after 15 years of litigation, the resolution and compromise of more than 1,000 claims, the enormous use of court time during that period, vast quantities of disclosure [of evidence] and the huge costs that have been incurred and paid, we suggest that now is the appropriate time to ensure that any intended claims are brought within a reasonable time and that the slow drip-feed of the evidence – which on the claimants’ approach could last many more years, possibly another decade – is brought to a conclusion.”

The barrister said there have been about 45 hearings since 2016, taking up about 70 hours of court time, and that legal costs have been “exorbitant”, with total costs for the third tranche of the litigation alone reaching nearly £35m.

He said allegations had been in the public domain since former News of the World journalist Clive Goodman was arrested in 2006 and that it would be “difficult for anyone living in this country to be unaware” of the phone-hacking scandal.

But giving judgment on Friday, Mr Justice Fancourt said he did not agree with NGN’s submission that the majority of potential victims already know they could make a claim. The judge said: “More claims are now being brought that do not arise from an article being published. Even when claimants did have an article published about them, it is not obvious this was how the information was gathered.”

He added that new claimants were still learning of potential claims after appearing as witnesses in other claimants’ cases, but said the court’s position may change in the future.

The court heard that there are currently 52 claims registered, with a further 436 claims at the pre-action letter stage and 82 more “in the pipeline”.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×