Guardian Care Homes v Barclays Bank
Hausfeld acted in a landmark interest rate swap mis-selling claim against Barclays, which became the test case for LIBOR manipulation claims.
This case related to the interest rate swap mis-selling scandal in which several major banks were alleged to have mis-sold complex interest rate derivative products to small and medium sized business customers, many of whom claimed they were forced into in insolvency as a result.
The dispute
Guardian Care Homes brought claims valued at over £70 million against Barclays Bank alleging that it had been mis-sold various derivatives. Hausfeld was instructed in February 2014, by which stage the case had already been established as the test case for LIBOR manipulation, meaning that it was the first time that the English courts would consider allegations of fraudulent misrepresentation by Barclays Bank to a customer in connection with LIBOR manipulation. The case involved extensive disclosure of materials relating to Barclays’ conduct, including LIBOR manipulation, and was widely reported in the press.
Hausfeld had less than four months to prepare for trial, which was listed to go on for at least two months with a long list of witnesses including many of Barclays’ former senior management team and disclosure running into the hundreds of thousands of documents. Hausfeld also instructed a team of experts to assist with several complex factual issues.