This market leaders’ debate focuses on the issue of collective redress and whether and how the UK system should be reformed better to enable groups of individuals to bring actions. This is an intermediate level course.

The main aim of the UK regulatory system is to prevent criminal behaviour and penalise wrongdoers, not provide the wronged with redress. But to deter illegal behaviour, the penalties must exceed the gains organisations get from treating users /customers /consumers unfairly or even illegally. This is not always the case, and even where there are informal mechanisms for redress, the wronged rarely use them and a number of obstacles prevent them form combining forces.

Consumer claims often involve relatively small amounts of money (although they may be significant for the person concerned) that it might not be economic to recover individually through litigation. But increasingly they are higher value and quasi commercial and these cases are likely to involve complex arguments or specialised evidence that is beyond the resources of individuals, and making them expensive to pursue and difficult to win.

Despite initial support from the Lord Chancellor’s Department’s for representative actions in 2001, the only area where they have progressed is in competition law. In March 2008 the government published a response to its July 2006 consultation on representative actions in consumer protection legislation, concluding there was “no evidence of need”. The government position is understood to be that the MacCrory review of the penalties regime and the upcoming Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill will be sufficient to ensure proper consumer protection.

There are discussions in the EU about developing a European collective redress scheme, benchmarks and a common approach to damages, but this is likely only to cover cross-border claims and, if it ever comes into being, will be years in the making.

Since the recording of this video podcast, the Civil Justice Council has published its recommendations to the Lord Chancellor “Improving access to justice through collective actions”.

The information in this video podcast represented the legal position when it was recorded on 25 June 2008.

This video podcast explores in detail the UK system for collective redress and features contributions from some of the leading experts involved in this field. It will be of interest to any legal professional wishing to understand more about the strengths and weaknesses of the current system and the debates about how it could be reformed, as well as the implications of potential European legislation. It will also be of interest to other policy makers and influencers in this area.

The video and linked interviews last for 74 minutes. It will take you a further 20 minutes to complete the questionnaire. You will need to get 50 per cent of the questions right to gain your CPD.

The debate is chaired by Mr Justice Cranston. The interviews are with ITN’s Jon Gilbert. The questions are set by Fraser Whitehead.

Learning outcomes

After watching this video you will understand:

• The benefits and drawbacks of the current system for collective actions
• The implications of the JJB sports shirts case
• How the US class action system works and recent changes
• Lessons from the US system
• The reform agenda in England and Wales
• The EU proposals for collective redress
• The debate between an opt-in and opt-out system
• Consumers’ views of bringing a class action
• Possible funding regimes
• Preventing spurious cases
• Damages and cy-près distribution of damages
• Cross-border issues