Group Litigation: Managing Strategy & Avoiding Cost Risks

Introduction

Group actions have become a central feature of English litigation, illustrated by cases ranging from the Post Office litigation to Dieselgate and Merricks v Mastercard. But as these claims grow in scale, so to do the risks, procedural challenges, rising costs, and uncertainties around funding.

In the wake of the PACCAR decision and the Civil Justice Council’s 2025 Final Report on Litigation Funding, practitioners must contend with evolving rules on funding structures, transparency obligations, and costs management.

This virtual classroom seminar provides a practical guide to the current legal framework, key strategic decisions, and essential cost control tools needed to run multi-party claims effectively while avoiding the financial and procedural pitfalls that have increasingly come to light.

What You Will Learn

This live and interactive course will cover the following:

• Understand the main routes to collective redress - Group Litigation Orders (GLOs) (CPR 19.22-19.24), representative actions (CPR 19.8), and Collective Proceedings Orders (CPOs) in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT proceedings)
• Recognise how recent cases are shaping courts’ approach to the stringent 'same interest' tests required for representative actions (Prismall v Google), and the judicial exercise of case management powers in multi-party claims (Hammon v UCL, Wirral Council v Indivior)
• Identify common cost risk areas, funding structure flaws, After-The-Event (ATE) insurance gaps, adverse and inter-claimant costs, and budgeting traps demonstrated by orders for security for costs (Asertis v Bloch)
• Appreciate the profound impact of the post-PACCAR funding landscape and key CJC Report proposals, including statutory reform of LFAs/DBAs, funder regulation, transparency, and access to justice safeguards
• Gain practical strategies to protect profitability and ensure proportionality when managing large scale, multi-party litigation

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.