LEGAL ISSUES

Lawsuits Pile Up on News Corp.

As hacking probe deepens.

News Corp. has recently been hit with a pile of lawsuits, as investigators deepen their probe and people claim they were hacked by one of its tabloids. News of the World alone faces 35 privacy-invasion lawsuits, up from 24 in April, forcing News International to set aside up to $32.6 million in preparation for the suits. That money includes compensation for hacking victims who want settlements. Police first launched an investigation against News of the World in January, but now that the scandal has increased 100-fold, they are reaching out to more and more people who could have been hacked. Working from a list of 4,000 mobile-phone numbers compiled in notebooks of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and News of the World's former royals correspondent, Clive Goodman, who are both in jail, police have called only 170 on the list so far, but they plan to continue reaching out to people.