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NLJ this week: Approach of the opt-out class actions?

21 October 2022
Issue: 7999 / Categories: Legal News , Competition , Collective action
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They’re massive, big money, headline-grabbing and share-price rocking—and possibly coming to a court near you! At least, that’s if the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) continues on its current path of greenlighting opt-out collective proceedings. 

In this week’s NLJ, Cameron Laing, associate at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan UK, examines the increasing number of applications for opt-out collective proceedings orders (CPO) on which the CAT has been adjudicating, and notes that, on the whole, the tribunal has tended to grant such applications.

Considering the CAT's approach to strike-out and summary dismissal of these claims, he writes: 'Its hesitance to exercise its discretion in these areas in CPO claims to date demonstrates that, post-Merricks, it is a very high threshold that a defendant needs to meet for a CPO claim to be struck out.

He also looks, in particular, at how the CAT’s assessment of the merits of claims has worked in practice.

Read Cameron's article in full here.

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Freeths—Ruth Clare

Freeths—Ruth Clare

National real estate team bolstered by partner hire in Manchester

Farrer & Co—Claire Gordon

Farrer & Co—Claire Gordon

Partner appointed head of family team

mfg Solicitors—Neil Harrison

mfg Solicitors—Neil Harrison

Firm strengthens agriculture and rural affairs team with partner return

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The dangers of uncritical artificial intelligence (AI) use in legal practice are no longer hypothetical. In this week's NLJ, Dr Charanjit Singh of Holborn Chambers examines cases where lawyers relied on ‘hallucinated’ citations — entirely fictitious authorities generated by AI tools
The Solicitors Act 1974 may still underpin legal regulation, but its age is increasingly showing. Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Morrison-Hughes of the Association of Costs Lawyers argues that the Act is ‘out of step with modern consumer law’ and actively deters fairness
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