Taylor Hampton's Mark Lewis has filed four phone-hacking claims against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), with the claims representing the first legal action to be launched against a newspaper group other than News International (NI).

Lewis filed the claims in the High Court yesterday (22 October) on behalf of former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati, former Blackburn Rovers captain Garry Flitcroft, and the Beckham family's former nanny Abbie Gibson.

Lewis has previously represented a host of phone-hacking claimants against NI in relation to the scandal that led to the closure of Sunday tabloid News of the World (NoW), including the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

Lewis told Legal Week: "Since this story has been released, two more people have already contacted me about phone-hacking claims. With NoW it started with one case. These things have a habit of suddenly spiralling so we'll see what happens."

Trinity Mirror, which owns the Daily and Sunday Mirror and The People publisher MGN, said: "We are unaware action has been taken at the High Court."

The phone-hacking scandal which engulfed NI led to the launch of the Leveson Inquiry into  press standards in November last year. Lord Justice Leveson expected to deliver his report detailing recommendations on future press regulation to the Government next month.

A host of firms have taken roles on the matter with Linklaters and Olswang handed the bulk of advisory work for NI parent company News Corporation and its subsidiaries, while Collyer Bristow, Mishcon de Reya, Bindmans and Atkins Thomson are among a number of firms to have acted for dozens of claims against the publisher.

Davenport Lyons has traditionally been MGN's go-to external legal adviser. The firm most recently acted for the publishing group on a libel claim taken out by Frankie Boyle, with a verdict yesterday finding in favour of Boyle, with MGN instructed to pay the comedian around £50,000.

News of the latest claims comes after Lewis announced plans earlier this year to take legal action against News Corporation in the US, alongside New York civil liberties lawyer Norman Siegel. An update on how and whether this will proceed is expected in the coming weeks.