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Coulson sues Murdoch group over legal fees
September 23, 2011 11:42 pm

By Ben Fenton and Caroline Binham

Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World, is suing the newspaper’s parent company after it refused to continue paying his legal fees in connection with a criminal investigation into the phone-hacking scandal.

Jo Rickards, a partner at DLA Piper, his lawyers, confirmed that the firm had filed a suit in the Queen’s Bench Division on Thursday alleging breach of contract. She declined to comment further.

Two people connected to the parties said News Group Newspapers, the parent company, had continued to pay Mr Coulson’s legal fees in connection with evidence he may give to parliamentary committees investigating the scandal or to the Leveson inquiry into press behaviour, but not those associated with any criminal investigation.

Mr Coulson is on bail to return to a police station in London next month.

He resigned as the editor of Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday tabloid in January 2007 after Clive Goodman, one of his reporters, and Glenn Mulcaire, a private detective contracted to the paper, were jailed for hacking.

He said at the time that he was unaware of their activities, and News Group Newspapers maintained from that time until early this year that the hacking was the work of only those two men.

Six months after his resignation, Mr Coulson went to work as director of communications for David Cameron at the Conservative party and followed him into No 10 in 2010.

Reporting by The Guardian and other newspapers including the Financial Times since 2009 has shown that hacking was widespread and involved thousands of victims.

The revelation on July 4 that the phone of Milly Dowler, the murdered 13-year-old Surrey schoolgirl, was hacked by Mr Mulcaire prompted Mr Murdoch to close the News of the World.

Mr Coulson was subsequently arrested by police investigating both the hacking and corrupt payments to officers. He is one of 16 people to have been held.

Questions about the payment of his legal fees also began to be asked after it emerged that Mr Coulson had been paid his severance package of more than two years’ salary in instalments after he had begun to work for Mr Cameron in 2007.

Mr Coulson retained Ms Rickards when he was first arrested and News International picked up his legal bill. The criminal defence lawyer charges at least £400 an hour.

The Metropolitan Police declined to comment on Friday on a report in The Daily Telegraph that News International allegedly paid £25,000 to Neil Wallis, ex-deputy editor at the News of the World, while he was working as a press adviser to Scotland Yard

The Metropolitan Police declined to comment on Friday on a report in The Daily Telegraph that News International journalists had paid £25,000 to Neil Wallis, formerly deputy editor at the News of the World, while he was working on a part-time contract offering press advice to the Commissioner of Scotland Yard.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1cc62c14-e614-11e0-960c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1YqlH1OW2

lol .. dog attempts to bite hand that fed him .. snarl ..

See also .. British lawyers acting for phone-hacking victims are planning to launch legal action
in the United States against directors of News Corp, Sky TV said on Friday, quoting sources.
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