Class actions are treated with some suspicion in the UK. It’s America’s fault, of course. Its cultural hair trigger on a lawsuit has created a lasting impression of rampaging lawyers bringing frivolous claims against hard-pressed US businesses.
The taint is such that the nascent — and actually quite different — UK regime comes with its own name: collective actions. And, like it or not Britain, next year will be significant in their development.
Let’s skirt past the question of whether the stereotypical misgivings about the US means of redress for similarly-situated people harmed by the same action of a defendant are well founded. (Not entirely, but that’s another column).
Since 2015, the UK has had a regime based on infringements of competition law that allows consumers or businesses to bring a private claim for damages on an opt-out basis, in other words on behalf of a whole class of claimants without the need to identify them all individually.
It includes various safeguards against a legal free-for-all. One is the need to convince a litigation funder to take…
