Four reporters filed suit this week against Hewlett-Packard Co. in connection with the company’s boardroom spying scandal.

The suits were filed in San Francisco Superior Court by San Francisco-based online news service CNet Corp. (NASDAQ:CNET) reporters Dawn Kawamoto, Stephen Shankland and Thomas Krazit, and Associated Press reporter Rachel Konrad.

Also named as plaintiffs were Jon Kawamoto, Dawn Kawamoto’s husband and editor of East Bay community papers The Montclarion and The Piedmonter; and Rebecca and Thomas Shankland, Stephen Shankland’s wife and father.

The suit, which is asking for unspecified damages, says investigators hired by Palo Alto-based HP (NYSE:HPQ) got the journalists’ work, home and cell phone records by falsely representing themselves to telephone companies.

In a statement, HP said it unsuccessfully tried to resolve the matter by making “a substantial settlement offer to the reporters, their family members and a charity of their choice. Unfortunately, rather than respond to the offer, they have decided to sue. HP is disappointed by their decision and will defend itself.”

In June, a Santa Clara County judge dismissed the remaining charges against three people in the case, saying their conduct was a “betrayal of trust and honor” but didn’t involve criminal activity.

As part of the dismissal, the defendants — former HP ethics chief Kevin Hunsaker and private investigators Ronald DeLia and Matthew DePante — each completed 96 hours of community service.

A $14.5 million civil settlement was reached between HP and the state in December, and most of the money is destined for state and local investigations into privacy rights and intellectual property violations.

In March charges were dropped against former chairwoman Patricia Dunn in connection with the company’s boardroom spying scandal.

All four had been charged in October with four felony counts: use of false or fraudulent pretenses to obtain confidential information from a public utility, unauthorized access to computer data, identity theft, and conspiracy to commit each of those crimes.

Each charge was punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and three years in prison.

Another defendant, private investigator Bryan Wagner, earlier pleaded guilty to the same charges in connection to the spying in federal court and agreed to testify for the prosecution.