How does a Group Action Claim work?

A group action claim is generally made when one issue or problem affects multiple people. There is often only one person or company at fault as well, but their negligence can cause problems for thousands or even millions of people.

A group action claim allows all the people adversely affected to come together and claim against the defendant(s) in one large set of efficient proceedings. Bringing a group action claim has many benefits as multiple victims can use shared evidence and unite on a “strength in numbers” front as opposed to each person having to bring their own personal claim to different courts across the country.

A better way of claiming

A group action claim is often faster and stronger than bringing each individual case one by one. Courts would be much more appreciative of not having to go through each individual claim as well, especially when the majority of them would be virtually the same. This way, the court also saves a lot of money as running claims through courts takes a lot of time and a lot of money if each person where to do things individually.

However, even if each claimant’s claim was very similar, each compensation claim is still often tailored to that specific claimant. The amount sought should still reflect how the issue or problem affected that claimant specifically: the physical and psychological impact upon that particular individual, for example.

So, what happens?

A court must approve a “Group Litigation Order” which allows for anyone eligible to join the group action claim. Next, lawyers will usually bring ‘lead test cases’ to the front for common issues across the whole of the claimants to be dealt with. Bringing lead test cases will usually ‘test the waters’ to see where the benchmark is for the wider group, and allows for each individual to see what the standard basis is for the claim. Using lead test cases will often save the court a lot of time and money by preventing a huge degree of repetitiveness.

Can I join a group action claim?

If you and others have been affected by a large-scale issue, you may be able to join a group action claim. Contact us to see if the Court has given a Group Litigation Order on your issue, and whether you’re eligible to join one we’re already running.

As the Group Action Lawyers, we’re heavily involved in (and leading) a number of well-known group action cases, ranging from the PIP Breast Implant scandal to the VW emissions scandal.

We must remember that efficiency is key. Courts will appreciate claimants bringing group action claims rather than multiple individual cases which would waste a lot of time and effort and be tediously repetitive. It just makes so much more sense to put them all together!