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Have you heard of a class action
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Well, you're from the United States. You probably can't pass a billboards or turn on the TV without seeing a call to join one
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And there's a bug that the UK has now caught on. So what is a class action
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And why has it reached the United Kingdom? A class action is when a person represents a claim on behalf of a class of people
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This can be hundreds or even millions of people. Now, the most well known is the opt-out system, which is quite popular in the United States
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Which means people are just automatically signed up to the claim. While opt-in, which is used most commonly here in the United Kingdom as a form of group litigation order
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is an action brought on behalf of identified group of claimants who have each chosen to be involved in the case
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Traditionally, the United Kingdom is very wary of a class action market that the US seems to love
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However, in recent years, the landscape in UK has been involving rapidly
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This came as a result of a new law introduced in 2015, which allowed an opt-ed regime to be introduced for the infringements of competition law in the United Kingdom
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Now, the Compensation Appeal became one of the busiest tribunals in UK
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as a result of this. A recent report by law firm CMS revealed that as of the 31st of December 2023
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the total claim value of opt-out totaled over 56 billion pounds, which was up 48% on 2022 figures
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of over 38 billion pounds. The same report stated that new claims filed
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by the end of 2023 had over 540 million members, which is eight times greater than the population of the United Kingdom
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This would equate to each persons in the United Kingdom being involved in around eight class actions each The rapid rise in competition class actions over the last few years has seen competition lawyers and barrisers being treated like gold dust while on the defence side some law
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firms have been trying to keep up with the trend of building out their practice groups
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Opt-in cases are still doing well, as a report showed that they're still ahead of opt-out
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which shows that there is an appetite for people getting involved in legal actions of both types
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But nothing is free in this world. So who are funding in these cases
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Third-party funding, also known as litigation funders, often agree to finance all a part of a legal cost of the litigation, in return of a fee payable from the proceeds recovered from the funded case
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UK litigation funding market is now the second largest act of the United States
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The UK became popular for funded cases due to its robust legal system and reputation for fairness, according to a chairman
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of the International Legal Finance Association. With the rise of class actions with businesses such as meta, Google and photophone
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it's no wonder why this legal tool is fast becoming one of the main concerns of businesses
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Defence lawyers have told CCAM that these cases due to the size and value can be very burdensome for businesses
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And it can be hard to map out who is actually being targeted, as increasingly all sectors and industries are being subjected to these cases
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And despite whatever the view might be on class-class businesses, actions. The main view is that this surge won't be slowing down anytime soon. Here at
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CityA.M we'd like to know your thoughts on the increase of class actions here in the United Kingdom. Let us know your thoughts in a comment or head over to cityam.com for my fault ysis
