Blog
The collapse of the Bayer Essure group litigation is a reminder that mass claims generate headlines—but evidence wins cases. Pogust Goodhead has advised around 200 women to abandon their claim against Bayer over its Essure sterilisation device after concluding the case was unlikely to succeed at trial. The group had sought approximately £10 million in damages, alleging the device caused illness and injury. After years of litigation, however, independent King's Counsel reportedly advised that the medical evidence was insufficient to establish legal causation.
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The High Court's landmark judgment in the UK Dieselgate litigation marks one of the most significant setbacks yet for the country's rapidly expanding class action industry. After a 15-week trial examining 20 representative vehicles across five manufacturers, Mrs Justice Cockerill rejected the overwhelming majority of allegations that leading carmakers had fitted unlawful defeat devices designed to cheat emissions tests. The ruling represents a major victory for manufacturers including Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Renault and Nissan, while leaving only limited findings against certain technologies used by Mercedes-Benz and Peugeot-Citroën. For the litigation industry, however, the judgment raises much bigger questions than Dieselgate alone.
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The FCA deserves credit for one thing. In defending its motor finance redress scheme, it rejected lenders' attempts to decide for themselves who should receive compensation, memorably telling the Upper Tribunal that doing so would amount to letting "the foxes guard the henhouse." Quite right. Banks should not write the rules governing their own liability. But neither should Britain's rapidly expanding litigation industry.
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The UK's motor finance compensation scheme was supposed to end one of Britain's biggest consumer scandals without creating another. Instead of forcing millions of motorists into years of legal wrangling, the FCA proposed an industry-wide redress scheme that would compensate consumers directly. Now that scheme itself is under attack. Consumer Voice has launched a legal challenge arguing that the FCA's proposals do not go far enough and that motorists should receive substantially more compensation. In response, the FCA is seeking to have the claim dismissed, arguing that Consumer Voice has not been sufficiently transparent about its funding arrangements and relationship with its legal partner. Consumer Voice rejects those allegations, says it does not profit from motor finance claims, and maintains that its challenge is solely about securing fair compensation. Those issues remain before the courts. Whatever the outcome, the dispute exposes a wider problem.
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Compensation linked to collisions involving e-scooters and e-bikes has now exceeded £110 million, according to new figures reported by the BBC. The total has more than doubled in a year, with much of the cost falling to the Motor Insurers' Bureau (MIB), which compensates victims injured by uninsured or untraced road users. The victims deserve redress. That isn't in question. The bigger question is whether the UK is addressing the causes of these accidents—or simply preparing to absorb ever-growing compensation bills.
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The motor finance scandal has reached an important crossroads. What began as a question of how best to compensate consumers is increasingly becoming a contest over who should control the compensation process. This week, the Court of Appeal cleared the way for omnibus claims against motor finance lenders, reinforcing the prospect of large-scale group litigation running alongside the Financial Conduct Authority's proposed redress scheme. At the same time, Consumer Voice is challenging that scheme, arguing that consumers should receive more than the regulator has proposed. Taken together, these developments point in the wrong direction. Rather than supporting a single, coherent system of redress, they increase the likelihood of parallel compensation routes, competing legal strategies and prolonged uncertainty for millions of motorists.
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