Mass Tort brief
UK Mass Tort: Group Actions Face Procedural Crosscurrents
London courts wrestle with landmark group claims across car emissions, foreign mine disasters, and talc liability as corporate Britain pushes back against US-style opt-out litigation.
Mass Tort
Refusal to grant an appeal leaves 1.6M British motorists with one final route — convincing the Court of Appeal to intervene or watching their collective emissions claims collapse.
BackgroundThe Pan-NOx group litigation consolidates emissions claims brought by UK car owners against major carmakers over defeat devices designed to conceal nitrogen oxide emissions during regulatory testing. A July High Court judgment construed defeat device definitions narrower than EU precedent.
- The High Court rejected arguments that liability findings were confined to 20 sample vehicles, barring lawyers from pleading additional vehicle variants.
- The court ordered lead claimant law firms to pay indemnity costs to Renault and Nissan after rejecting attempts to re-argue evidentiary findings.
- Solicitors at Leigh Day and Pogust Goodhead confirmed they will seek direct leave from the Court of Appeal, arguing English interpretations diverge from European standards.
Mass Tort
Splitting liability from individual damages keeps thousands of British cancer claims alive — ensuring American settlement terms will not shield the healthcare giant from London trials.
BackgroundJohnson & Johnson faces tens of thousands of consumer lawsuits alleging that its historic cosmetic talc products contained trace asbestos that caused fatal cancers. The company proposed a $5.5bn US class action settlement, but UK claimants operate under English tort law.
- Mrs Justice Hill ordered a split trial to resolve product contamination and general causation before individual damages and corporate knowledge are addressed.
- The High Court set an issuance cut-off of 18 January 2027 for new claimants, with preliminary liability trials scheduled for 2028.
- Lead claimant law firm KP Law confirmed that UK actions representing up to 7,000 claimants will proceed independently of North American settlement deals.
Mass Tort
A mutiny over lead representation threatens to derail London's £36bn environmental trial — leaving 400,000 disaster victims caught in a £2bn battle over funding and fees.
BackgroundThe 2015 Fundao tailings dam collapse in Mariana, Brazil, killed 19 people, destroyed communities, and contaminated hundreds of miles of river systems. The ongoing High Court action represents the largest environmental tort claim heard in London.
- A Brazilian claimant committee voted to discharge lead solicitors Pogust Goodhead in favour of US firm Bailey Glasser International ahead of the Stage Two quantum trial.
- Pogust Goodhead argued the termination is legally void, warning that transferring 400,000 client mandates imperils litigation funding and exposes claimants to £2bn in cost liabilities.
- Following the public courtroom feud, Pogust Goodhead announced on 10 October that it is stripping its founders' names and rebranding back to PGMBM ahead of the judge's ruling.
Mass Tort
Corporate Britain is fighting to block US-style class actions — warning ministers that extending collective redress beyond antitrust will ignite speculative mass lawsuits funded by third parties.
BackgroundUnder English civil procedure, group claims require claimants to affirmatively opt into Group Litigation Orders, with opt-out mechanisms restricted to the Competition Appeal Tribunal. The Department for Business and Trade sponsored a review into broadening opt-out regimes.
- Law firm Pinsent Masons argued that existing group litigation orders provide sufficient consumer redress without creating litigation-funder-driven exposure.
- Corporate defendants contend that US-style opt-out regimes incentivize frivolous mass filings and extract unmerited settlements.
- The Law Commission's scoping questionnaire concludes on 30 October, with business groups lobbying Downing Street to retain current opt-in filters.
Mass Tort
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