header-logo header-logo

Group claim refused for contaminated blood victims

12 March 2025
Issue: 8108 / Categories: Legal News , Health , Collective action , National Health Service , Compensation
printer mail-detail
Former pupils of Treloar’s College who were infected with contaminated blood during medical research in the 1970s and 1980s have lost their bid to bring a group litigation order (GLO).

Most of the 63 prospective claimants in Webster and others v Treloars Trust [2025] EWHC 516 (KB) attended the school’s haemophilia centre and were infected with HIV and/or hepatitis as a result of exposure to blood products. The former pupils say neither they nor their parents were properly consulted or given an opportunity to consent to their treatment. 

Dismissing their application this week, however, Senior Master Cook said the decision of whether to grant a GLO was ‘primarily one of case management’.

Senior Master Cook said: ‘It is important that it should be understood this does not mean the court is preventing these potential claims from being progressed or is indicating any view upon the merits of the potential claims… My decision relates solely to the use of a GLO as the appropriate vehicle through which such claims should be progressed…’.

Treloar’s was criticised last year in the final report of the Infected Blood Inquiry, which investigated the treatment of about 30,000 people with contaminated National Health Service blood products. The government is currently in the process of setting up a tariff-based compensation scheme.

Referring to this scheme, Senior Master Cook said the applicants had failed to show they would be likely to recover less under it than they would recover through litigation.

He said he regarded the scheme as ‘a form of alternative dispute resolution. The overriding objective of the CPR was modified, with effect from 1 October 2024 to give effect to the Court of Appeal’s decision in Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil CBC [2023] EWCA Civ 1416, to require the court to promote and use alternative dispute resolution’.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll