Collective redress in England and Wales: co-claimant collaboration as a tool for success

The last 12 months have seen rapid developments in the collective action regime in England and Wales, with 3 high profile collective actions having been certified since August 2021. However, the regime remains nascent with the courts finding their feet in dealing with collective and representative actions and limited guidance as to how the courts will deal with competing or overlapping claims.

Experience shows that when co-claimants can collaborate successfully, cases can be run more efficiently - although collaboration can be more challenging when the claimants’ interests are not aligned. The Hausfeld team provides an overview of claimant collaboration, sharing examples of how jointly instructing experts and complementary litigation strategies have created efficiencies for the claimant groups and the court system, notwithstanding that the groups were represented by separate law firms. They offer case examples such as the ground-breaking Trucks Cartel litigation and a number of high-profile GLO claims. These examples are contrasted with cases where challenges have arisen with collaboration or when claimant groups are in conflict.

The full article first appeared in the October 2021 e-Bulletin of the Class Actions Committee in the Legal Practice Division of the International Bar Association, and is reproduced by kind permission of the International Bar Association, London, UK. © International Bar Association.

With thanks to Intern Andrea Martin Alacid for her assistance with this piece.

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