Another Step Towards Class Actions In England And Wales?

The Civil Justice Council ("CJC") has recently published its formal recommendations as to how to improve access to justice through collective actions (i.e. an action brought by or on behalf of a represented class, whose members have a common interest in the action). The report proposes the introduction of a generic collective action, capable of being brought by a wide range of representative parties, from individual representative claimants to designated or ad-hoc bodies. Whilst the proposals do not call for the wholesale adoption of the much-feared American-style class action, the CJC does propose that in some instances an opt-out procedure would be appropriate.