A handful of banks ended up paying millions of dollars in fines and legal settlements in cases whose salacious details made international headlines.
Mr Murdoch's organisation has reached out-of-court settlements in cases brought by Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association, and Max Clifford, the publicist.
As part of a settlement for the case in 1997, the Agriculture Department agreed to let farmers seek $50,000 settlements in cases where the government determined that it had discriminated.
The fund is restricted to payments of court-approved judgments and settlements, as well as to out-of-court settlements in cases where the government faces imminent litigation that it could lose.
"He had a 30-year history in parishes, and he was a major pedophile," said Mr. Sherman, who has represented scores of people who received settlements in cases of sexual abuse by members of the clergy.
Prof. Stephen Gillers, who teaches legal ethics at New York University Law School, says that the arguments made against secret settlements in cases involving widespread harm, called mass torts by lawyers, apply with equal strength in this new setting.
Mr. Almunia has said he prefers reaching settlements in cases that, even if they result in victories in court, may not result in effective remedies in the fast-moving technology sector.
Experts in mass tort litigation say the authority of district court judges to review settlements in cases involving individual plaintiffs — that is, non-class-action suits — has not been tested and remains unclear.
That body paid settlements in cases involving at least two Timone accusers last year, one of whom committed suicide in 2015.
