Group litigation and group litigation orders

Reproduced from Practical Law with the permission of the publishers. For further information visit Practical Law website.

Large-scale, multi-party litigation is becoming increasingly prevalent. There are several different procedures that can be used for multi-party litigation, but this note focuses on the use of group litigation orders (GLOs).

The note describes the circumstances in which a court may make a GLO, and the procedural steps that must be followed by the parties and their legal representatives, both to obtain a GLO and after a GLO has been granted, including appointing lead solicitors, and preparing statements of case, disclosure and evidence. It also looks at the differences between the trial of preliminary issues and the trial of test cases, and the implications of each of these types of trials for the parties, and considers the particular challenges of settlement in group litigation. In addition, the note lists different funding options which may be available for group litigation, and considers the court’s approach to costs in GLO cases.