Lawyer Monthly - August 2021 Edition

17 AUG 2021 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM THE NEW WAVE OF GROUP LITIGATION FIRMS: AMBULANCE CHASERS OR PURVEYORS OF JUSTICE? four ‘C’s – claimant, consumer, contingent and class. And by class, we meant any situation where individual clients could have their claims brought in a way to benefit from the economies of scale of so doing, be it group litigation, multi-claimant litigation, Competition Appeals Tribunal opt-out claims, CPR 19.6 actions or even a series of individual claims following the same path. We also agreed that a key ingredient to a successful case is helping the judge to see the facts from the claimant’s perspective. He or she has to see that the claimant is on the side of right and has a genuine grievance that needs to be remedied. In all of this, the technology is key. Gone are the days of pack out/pack back where adverts on the backs of buses led to call centre operatives taking claimant details before posting out hard copy sign-up documents and then chasing for responses. Instead, the modern aspiration is as digital a client journey as possible. Clients can be attracted through social media – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok – and then serviced by technology throughout. The new wave of group litigation firms does not measure client bases in the hundreds; it measures them in the thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. So, what does our current caseload look like? Over the past 18 months or so, we have built a large roster of cases and represent over a hundred thousand individual clients. We are pursuing VW, Mercedes and Vauxhall on dieselgate claims. We are pursuing Uber for failing to recognise our clients as workers. We are pursuing Tesco for alleged failures to comply with equal pay legislation. British Airways for failing to protect its customers’ data. Numerous high street banks for profiting from secret commissions on the sale of payment protection insurance. We have many more cases in the pipeline. The common theme is that these are all claims on behalf of individuals against large well-resourced corporate defendants who have (allegedly) committed systemic wrongdoing. And, we say, the litigation that we have, with other firms, progressed has made the difference. Would car manufacturers compensate the consumers they deceived voluntarily? Would Uber have agreed to treat its drivers as workers and issue holiday pay, national minimum wage and other entitlements? Would BA have compensated the victims of the data breach? Would the banks pay back to customers tens of billions of pounds in secret commissions? The answer is clear: absolutely not. So, to all those who look upon the new wave of group litigation firms with an element of distaste, I say this. Yes, of course, we are here to make a profit. But firstly, that profit will not be as extreme as it might first appear when the risks of bringing these claims and the time cost of money is taken into account. And, more importantly, by flexing our muscles, embracing technology and levelling the playing field, we are providing a route to compensation for wronged consumers that previously didn’t exist. In fact, I would go one step further. This new threat of litigation that cannot be brushed to one side has a wider impact. It gives teeth to the laws that have been created to protect society. It brings corporates to account for their misdeeds. It provides a strong incentive to comply. Firms like mine, therefore, do not just therefore provide access to justice to individual consumers. They play a wider societal role in influencing corporate behaviour.