Group actions: Time to join forces? (Pt 2)

• Apportionment of adverse common costs.
• High Court declines to make an order regarding early apportionment.

With the growing popularity of group litigation, the courts are increasingly facing complex questions in regard to the apportionment of costs, both within and between claimant groups, and the extent to which the court ought to make an early determination in regard to how any costs liability is to be apportioned between such claimants.

These issues were recently considered by Mrs Justice Moulder in the cases of Upham & Ors v HSBC and Akinluyi & Ors v HSBC [2022] EWHC 227 (Comm). These cases involve two separate sets of proceedings against HSBC, one by various claimants represented by Edwin Coe (the Edwin Coe claimants) and the other by Stewarts (the Stewarts claimants). It was agreed that these cases be case-managed and heard together as there are common issues between