Steve Coogan is poised to settle his phone-hacking claim at the high court on Wednesday morning, just days before his case against the Murdoch-owned publisher of the News of the World was due to go to trial.

The actor and comedian, who has pursued his claim against News International vehemently over the past year, is expected to appear in court at a scheduled pre-trial hearing in front of Mr Justice Vos, sources say.

That has fuelled speculation that he is will announce he has settled his long-standing dispute with the company, and triggered anticipation that some of the other outstanding phone hacking cases will also be settled on Wednesday.

His case is among 10 ongoing claims that were due to be come to a full trial on Monday, in hearings designed to provide a benchmark for the level of compensation due in any future cases.

Others cases awaiting trial include actions by singer Charlotte Church and her parents, the sports presenter Sky Andrew, MP Simon Hughes and the jockey Kieren Fallon.

Last minute negotiations continued on Tuesday night but it is expected a number of the 10 in addition to Coogan will also announce they have settled, in a procedural hearing just days ahead of full trials commencing.

Next week, Vos was scheduled to hear five of a total of 60 cases involving different categories of claimants including victims of crime, celebrities and sports figures in order to set the benchmark for future claimants.

Coogan has been one of the most outspoken and persistent claimants and has resolutely used to courts to force News International and the police to part with information, including notes of the private detective Glenn Mulcaire, over the past 18 months.

The comedian, in an interview with the Guardian in November, compared News International to a "protection racket" that uses the threat of press intrusion to ensure it is allowed to "conduct business unencumbered by scrutiny or regulation".

Last month, News Group Newspapers, the immediate parent company of the now defunct News of the World, paid out at least £640,000 in settlements with 37 celebrities including actor Jude Law, Sarah Payne, mother of murdered schoolgirl Sara, and Shaun Russell, father of Josie Rusell who survived a hammer attack that killed her mother and sister in 1996. That left 10 cases that could go forward for Monday's trials.

News International offered its "sincerest apologies" in court for the distress and damage it had caused in the first major public capitulation for the company which had up to late 2010 maintained that phone hacking was isolated to one "rogue reporter" who covered royal stories.

In the settlement hearing last month, Vos said the Murdoch-owned company behind the News of the World had made "an admission of sorts" that it engaged in a deliberate cover-up of evidence relating to phone hacking, on the day that the publisher paid an estimated seven figures in damages to settle 37 phone-hacking claims brought by public figures ranging from Jude Law to John Prescott.

Vos told News Group Newspapers he had seen evidence which raised "compelling questions about whether you concealed, told lies, actively tried to get off scot free".

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