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08 November 2024 / Elaina Bailes , Tom Otter
Issue: 8093 / Categories: Features , Profession , Class actions
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Representative actions: status & the future

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Elaina Bailes & Tom Otter chart the recent resurgence of representative actions post Lloyd v Google
  • Representative actions now warrant serious consideration as a mechanism for bringing multi-party claims.
  • They could assist investors in obtaining redress when it would not otherwise be realistically available to them, with a key Court of Appeal judgment expected next year.
  • Reform is needed to the CPR to assist the courts, maximise the utility of representative actions for claimants as a recovery mechanism and to ensure England retains its position as a global centre for litigation.

Does England & Wales have an opt-out class action system? This seemingly straightforward question that often comes from foreign lawyers has a ‘yes and no’ answer; ‘yes we do, but only for some causes of action’.

This article considers one of the two existing procedural mechanisms for opt-out actions: representative actions permitted under rule 19.8 of the Civil Procedure Rules (the other being opt-out procedures in the Competition Appeal Tribunal).

In particular, we focus on

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