According to a March 24 article in The Lawyer.com, the Civil Justice Council (CJC), a statutorily-created advisory organization to the British government, is considering proposing changes to the UK justice system that could, among other things, provide for an opt-out procedure similar to that applicable in FRCP 23(b)(3) actions, as opposed to the opt-in procedure for collective actions currently available in many EU jurisdictions. http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=131831&d=415&h=417&f=416. As the article discusses, the CJC is considering reforms that would be a hybrid of existing UK and US procedures.
A copy of a comprehensive February 2008 report by the CJC discussing “collective redress” reforms can be found at its website:
http://www.civiljusticecouncil.gov.uk/files/collective_redress.pdf.
As noted on page 168 of that report, “Other opt-out regimes have recently been introduced in Europe (Spain, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands), each of which has different features and pre-conditions for use.” The CJC’s January 2008 report includes an interesting comparison in participation rates in cases that utilized an opt-out process versus those that used an opt-in process.
Meanwhile, in Italy, a new law passed late last year that goes into effect this year 2008 provides for class action-style collective lawsuits to be filed by limited categories of associations. The Mass Tort Litigation Blog has reprinted in English the relevant collective action provisions of the new law, which allows certain consumer associations to bring actions on behalf of collective interests:
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/mass_tort_litigation/2008/01/italys-new-clas.html
For more about the CJC, see http://www.civiljusticecouncil.gov.uk/about/about.htm
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