The Pitfalls Of Group Litigation Orders.A group litigation order A group litigation order (or GLO) is an order of a court in England and Wales, which permits a number of claims which give rise to common or related issues (of fact or law) to be managed collectively. (GLO GLO Global GLO General Land Office GLO Greek Life Office GLO General Learner Outcomes GLO GLO Lounge Orlando GLO Good Looking Organisation Ltd. (music production) GLO Get the Lead Out GLO Gospel Literature Outreach ) can be made where there are a number of claims giving rise to common issues of law or fact. By this method, one claim proceeds as a test and the rest are stayed until the conclusion of the test claim. The parties are bound by its outcome. If the test claim succeeds, all the other claimants whose claims have been stayed under the GLO would have the benefit of the judgment. To enable claims to be managed, a group register is maintained so that claimants can subscribe to Verb 1. subscribe to - receive or obtain regularly; "We take the Times every day" subscribe, take buy, purchase - obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction; "The family purchased a new car"; "The conglomerate acquired a new company"; particular common issues. The provisions relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc class actions of this type can be found in the Civil Procedure Rules Part 19 which came into force in 2002. They include cost sharing and funding the costs of the lead solicitors. A claim form must be issued before entry on a group register and there are provisions relating to advertising a GLO to minimise the risk of individuals starting their own claim later on. The rationale of the GLO is of course to case manage claims involving common issues and to reduce costs by spreading the risk to other members of the group. Class actions are common in the US and the usage of the GLO is likely to become more widespread in appropriate claims including personal injury, product liability and financial loss, for example, mishandling of investments. One of the recent issues to emerge is the effect of the stay on claims. This has important implications if pleading points are then taken against those claims. For example, a defendant claims that it is not bound by the judgment on a stayed claim because an essential component is not stated in the claim form and the claimant CLAIMANT. In the courts of admiralty, when the suit is in rem, the cause is entitled in the Dame of the libellant against the thing libelled, as A B v. Ten cases of calico and it preserves that title through the whole progress of the suit. is now statute barred from amending it. The effect of a GLO was examined in Boake Allen v Inland Revenue Inland Revenue Noun (in Britain and New Zealand) a government department that collects major direct taxes, such as income tax Noun 1. (2007). The House of Lords House of Lords: see Parliament. had to consider a claim against the Inland Revenue for payment of tax made under mistake of law. In his judgment, Lord Woolf took the opportunity to make some observations if pleading points are taken on GLOs. He stated that the objective of the GLO is to avoid unnecessary costs being incurred and to reduce the number of steps litigants individually have to take. His Lordship lord·ship n. 1. often Lordship Used with Your, His, or Their as a title and form of address for a man or men holding the rank of lord. 2. The position or authority of a lord. 3. considered that it would be wholly inconsistent to spell out the nature of the remedy sought in the claim form in the case because the Revenue knew the issues from the GLO. Furthermore, for the purposes of limitation, a claim form under a GLO need only be a simple document which is read together with the GLO at the time of registration. Europcar UK Ltd and others v Inland Revenue (2008) involved a number of claims covered by a GLO made under mistake of law. Some claim forms did not include the word 'mistake' and the Revenue refused to accept them as valid. The claimants were not able to amend them because the Finance Act 2003 prevented new claims being brought under mistake of law. Mr Justice Henderson endorsed the views of Lord Woolf that the claim form should be read together with the GLO. He said that it was implicit from the claim forms that mistake was pleaded as it was referred to in the GLO. This judgment is to be welcomed. Taking pleading points in relation to claims stayed under a GLO undermines its usefulness by requiring claim forms to be updated. This is not always possible if there are novel legal points to be determined. The claim form must still mention the basic facts and cause of action to which it relates to enable a defendant to know what case it has to meet. The Revenue has been granted permission to appeal so we may still have to await a decision from the Court of Appeal before being able to determine the effectiveness of a GLO. The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances. Mr Ellis Ezekiel Penningtons Solicitors LLP LLP - Lower Layer Protocol Abacus House 33 Gutter In typography, the space between two columns. Lane London EC2V 8AR UNITED KINGDOM Tel: 02074573000 Fax: 020 74573240 E-mail: ainsworthce@penningtons.co.uk URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : www.penningtons.co.uk Click Here for related articles (c) Mondaq Ltd, 2008 - Tel. +44 (0)20 8544 8300 - http://www.mondaq.com |
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