They may examine allegations from a variety of sources including old lawsuits or news reports.
WSJ: FBI Probing News Corp.'s Former Billboard Unit in Russia
News Corp. was hit with multiple derivative lawsuits, ostensibly on behalf of the corporation itself, after news of the U.K. phone-hacking scandal broke in 2011.
FORBES: News Corp. Pays Itself $139 Million For Phone-Hacking Scandal -- Minus Legal Fees
's British newspapers unit, a storm that has led to the closure of the News of the World newspaper, the resignation of several senior executives, lawsuits, multiple investigations, and the abandonment of News Corp.
WSJ: Rupert Murdoch Has Change of Heart on Publishing Business
The allegations emerged in redacted British court filings part of civil lawsuits against a unit of News Corp.
The reverberations from the Apple case may resonate worldwide, particularly given the recent spate of lawsuits and court orders against online news sites.
Police had investigated the matter in 2006 but re-opened their probe at the beginning of this year after new information surfaced through civil lawsuits and an internal investigation at News International.
On Friday, news was continuing to emerge about a flurry of lawsuits between Dish Network, which last week released a tool to let its DVR customers do exactly that, and the major television networks.
Some of these payouts, like the latest, were negotiated by the most expensive lawyers on earth: Class-action firms, which specialize in assembling lawsuits in the wake of significant negative news and convincing judges to appoint them to represent all the shareholders who lost money as a result.
FORBES: Bank Of America's $2.4 Billion Settlement Another Lawyer-Induced Dividend
News Corp. has apologized for the wrongdoing and settled over 50 lawsuits related to phone hacking.
This is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ), which is still facing a flood of lawsuits stirred up by the Vioxx recall.
In Britain, the phone-hacking scandal brought the demise of the News of the World along with dozens of arrests and resignations, scores of lawsuits against Murdoch's empire and a public inquiry into media ethics.
Ironically, the national news media has bolstered the bogus complaints and made the prospect of still more expensive civil lawsuits more likely.
The civil lawsuits on behalf of allegedly defrauded Enron (otc: ENRNQ - news - people ) shareholders are in their early innings and will have to compete for attention and court space with likely criminal trials, which normally proceed first.
The underlying lawsuits (there were 26 of them at one point) erupted after lawyers noticed news articles about potential hearing loss and headsets and filed suits on behalf of millions of Motorola and Plantronics customers.
FORBES: Headset Settlement That Paid Lawyers, Not Clients, Is Rejected
Cases in the court's upcoming session include two suits to determine the legitimacy of patents, a case that will help determine the scope of federal jurisdiction in civil lawsuits, and a challenge by Waste Management (nyse: WMI - news - people ) to a Mississippi ordinance limiting where it can dispose of solid waste.
So Owens-Illinois (nyse: OI - news - people ), which quit making asbestos insulation in 1958 but still faces thousands of lawsuits, has asked the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas in Cleveland to halt trials against solvent companies, including Owens-Illinois, until plaintiffs have resolved their claims against the trusts.
In recent years, there have been lawsuits in the U.S. against McDonald's (nyse: MCD - news - people ), which have been candy for late-night comedians, but which have gotten nowhere in court.
That may be a mixed blessing for Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ), the drug's maker, which is facing at least 7, 000 lawsuits related to Vioxx that are likely to result in billions of dollars in damages.
Unified Patents Inc. was incorrectly referred to as United in second references in some editions of a Corporate News article on Monday about the company's plans to recruit companies for a collective effort to deter patent lawsuits or legal threats against its members.
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