In that case the solicitors acting for 3,500 Claimants who were seeking damages against the Ministry of Defence for noise induced hearing loss had sought to issue 3,500 claims on a single Claim Form rather than on separate Claim Forms, thereby avoiding having to pay a court fee for each claim.
The High Court Master ruled that this was an abuse of process and ordered for separate Claim Forms to be issued in respect of each case within 6 months, failing which the individual claims would be struck out.
The Claimants appealed against this ruling and their appeal was recently heard by the Divisional Court.
The Appeal Judges were told that 3,017 Claimants had managed to issue individual Claim Forms within the deadline set by the Master but that the Court Office had been overwhelmed by the volume of claims resulting in severe delays and that more than 100 Claims Forms which had been lodged with the Court had still not been issued 3 months after the deadline.
Further, many Claimants were entitled to partial remission on fees but were nevertheless charged the full £10,000 court fee for their claim. The Claimants argued that the Master’s ruling had substantially increased the administrative burden on the Court as well as adding to the costs of the litigation whilst serving no real practical purpose.
The Divisional Court allowed the appeal and set aside the Master’s Order. The Divisional Court Judges found that the Master had been wrong to think that each Claimant needed to issue their own Claim Form and that he had misjudged the consequent difficulties for the court system.
The Divisional Court held that the real question was not whether there was a large number of Claimants and/of causes of action but rather, whether it was convenient to dispose of the issues arising between the parties in a single set of proceedings.
The degree of commonality between the causes of action would be the most important factor in determining whether it would, or would not, be convenient to dispose of them in a single set of proceedings and they found that there was such commonality in these cases.
This judgment will be welcome by the Claimants and it has clarified the issue that the use of a single Claim Form in an appropriate group action is not an abuse of process.
Blacks Solicitors can provide assistance on all aspects of court and tribunal proceedings. If you require advice or assistance, please email or call our Dispute Resolution team on 0113 207 000.
Partner and Head of Dispute Resolution
Commercial Dispute Resolution
LPatel@LawBlacks.com
0113 227 9316
@LukeLawBlacks
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