Deadlines For Group Actions Claims

In law there are deadlines for making claims, and in some actions the deadlines can actually be numerous! Really the best thing to do is just join the action as soon as you can to make sure that you safeguard your position for claiming.

In England and Wales there are limitation deadlines to claim which are typically three years from the date of an accident, or three years from the date of knowledge of negligence, but there are different ways of calculating this, and there are additional statutory deadlines that may come BEFORE any three year deadline.

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It's important to remember that many scandals break in to the news several years after events have happened, and you can still end up being possibly out of time for claiming.

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A breach of contract claim is typically six years from the date a contract was made, and there are differing limitation periods in Scotland and also for other pieces of legislation we may use for claiming. You may only have one year under some regulations, so we can't stress enough how important it is to claim right away.

How long do I have to join a Group Action

This is really important - you should join a Group Action as soon as you possibly can!

As well as the limitation periods mentioned earlier - of which several could apply - there are usually court-imposed cut off points for registering on GLO (Group Litigation Order) proceedings. These dates can be set by the court meaning we lawyers don't have any control or say over them.

If you miss the deadline you may find you're in a very difficult situation. You may have to ask the court for special permission to join late which is never easy to do - especially if you don't have a good reason.

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Even having no knowledge of the deadlines is not accepted as an excuse!

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We have been involved in group actions where some Claimants with another law firm tried to join the action a couple of months late. Unfortunately for them the senior Judge managing the cases in the High Court of Justice refused them permission and was very critical of their attempts to join.

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You really must join as soon as you possibly can - or face the consequences!

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Our Group Action Lawyers have received calls from victims asking to join Group Actions years after the cut off dates, and we have had to sadly turn them away because our hands are often tied. We have had to tell people that they have missed out on receiving tens of thousands of pounds because they missed a deadline.

Who can really afford to lose tens of thousands of pounds!?

Can I just wait to see how things go?

In our expert view, you really are playing with fire!

With all the limitation deadlines in law that can crop up - as well as the court-imposed deadlines for joining - this is not a wise thing to do.

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In the PIP action alone there were as many as five different limitation deadlines that could all have an impact on a claim!

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There really is no good reason. Some people are wary of joining when they don't think they have a claim, or because they want to see if they can get some compensation without joining a Group Action - perhaps direct from the Defendant. This is extremely unlikely because the trend in cases like this is for the Defendant(s) to dispute liability for the cases at the early stages because they don't want to open up the floodgates and set any early precedents. They will often refuse to pay compensation and will eventually pay out as we have seen in so many cases before.

But by the time they have agreed to settle cases you may well have already missed a key limitation date, and the deadline for joining the proceeding has probably long gone!

The mindset can sometimes be to wait for compensation without joining a Group Action and then forgetting to join later or thinking that the claims won't go anywhere because a settlement hasn't been agreed. But because they often refuse to pay out for a while and then eventually settle claims later on down the line, key deadlines have already passed.

The Defendants for Group Action Claims will often hire the best lawyers they can whose job is to limit their financial costs - they know what some people are thinking and they know how to make sure that as few people claim as possible.

Law changes and appeals - another serious reason!

Since 2010 the law for compensation claims has copped and changed so much now that people are typically receiving less compensation than before. Just "leaving it for now" puts you at risk of law changes that can then adversely affect your claim, and that's on top of the limitation deadlines and the court deadlines mentioned above.

Basically, there are a lot of ways I which you can very easily run out of time!

But there is also the issue of appeals as well. We have been involved in actions where the first sets of Claimant's received damages only for the action to be successfully appealed later on down the line! Luckily they retained the damages but those who claimed in the later stages may come away with nothing at all!

Don't leave it to chance - it is your responsibility to join now!

Safeguard your right to claim and join the action as soon as you can.