Group Actions

EU & Competition LawOver the past 20 years members of Henderson Chambers have been instructed in most of the leading group actions issued in the English courts. Henderson Chambers has been at the forefront of the development of the law and practice in relation to group litigation orders and group actions, as well as representative actions and other collective redress actions.

The group actions that members of Chambers have acted in cover a wide range of different types of claim, including: product liability claims; environmental and pollutions claims; group actions arising out of large accidents and disasters; group actions brought by foreign nationals against UK registered companies; collective competition claims; group actions brought by consumers and under the Consumer Credit Act; data protection actions; group actions in respect of industrial disease litigation; employees claiming wrongful dismissal due to defective technology relied upon by the employer; group actions in respect of historic physical, sexual and financial abuse and group actions arising out of the mis-selling of financial and other products. Members of Chambers have become expert in advising in relation to the obtaining of group litigation orders, the structure and management of group actions, and in relation to the funding of group actions.

Several members of Chambers are engaged in writing the second edition of Multi-Party Actions, edited by Prof C. Hodges and Geraint Webb QC.

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Expertise

Recent and ongoing Group action claims include:

Major domestic and international group actions.
Advising in relation to applications for Group Litigation Orders and associated issues in relation to the management of group actions.
VW NOx Diesel Emissions litigation
Vedanta in environmental claims arising out of a Copper mine in Zambia

Representative cases

grid list

AAA & Others v Unilever PLC [2018] EWCA Civ 1532

AAA & Others v Unilever PLC

Jurisdiction decision, the Court of Appeal (Lady Justice Gloster, Lord Justice Sales and Lord Justice Newey) has decided that Unilever’s Kenyan subsidiary should not face claims in England and Wales based on injuries suffered by visitors to and on its tea plantation in Kenya (arising out of Post- Election Violence, at the hands of third parties, in 2007.)
VW NOx Diesel Emissions litigation

Group action arising from noxious car emissions
DePuy Pinnacle Metal on Metal hip litigation [2018] EWHC 1208 (QB)

DePuy Pinnacle Metal on Metal hip litigation

In a decision that will be very influential for other metal on metal claims, on 21 May 2018 judgment was given in favour of the defendant DePuy International Limited on preliminary issues in the DePuy Pinnacle Metal on Metal group litigation.
Bates & Ors v Post Office Ltd

One of The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases of 2018

More than 500 current and former postmasters are taking on the Post Office over alleged failures in the electronic point of sales (EPS) and accounting system. The claimants say that this caused false figures to appear in monthly accounts and trigger false losses, which came directly out of employees’ pockets.

The sub-postmasters allege that the failures are so great that they have caused a number of employees to lose their jobs and face prosecution for theft and false accounting.

The group is pursuing the Post Office for around £120m over claims including breach of contract, deceit, negligent mis-statement, economic duress, harassment and malicious prosecution. The claims have already been subject to parliamentary scrutiny.
Ocensa Pipeline Group Litigation [2016] EWHC 1699 (TCC)

Ocensa Pipeline Group Litigation

Colombian Farmers / OCENSA Pipeline litigation: Defending oil pipe nuisance, environmental and property damage claim in Colombia.

Following a 4 ½ month Trial in the TCC, the defence was successful and all of the Lead Cases were dismissed.