Jaguar Land Rover: Appropriate to order GLO
Two leading class action law firms have obtained a group litigation order (GLO) to open up a new front against a motor manufacturer for something other than emissions defeat devices.
Milberg and Leigh Day have so far between them signed up 39,000 claimants who owned allegedly defective diesel Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) vehicles but believe there may be more than a million affected drivers in total.
Making the GLO, Senior Master Cook stressed that the claims were “distinct and separate” from the NOx emissions defeat devices claim being brought against JLR. There is a GLO already in place for that claim, for which Leigh Day and Pogust Goodhead are the lead solicitors.
The latest claim is that filters installed in diesel JLR vehicles to collect and reduce harmful particulate matter (known as DPFs) were and still are defective.
As a result, it is claimed, the vehicles have been exposed to the risk of material engine damage, increased oil dilution, fuel consumption and engine wear and tear, reduced service intervals and various operational difficulties.
In certain circumstances, it is said that problems with the DPF system can cause the engine management system to trigger ‘limp home mode’, which limits the speed of the vehicle to a crawling pace or shuts the engine down entirely.
Master Cook said both Milberg and Leigh Day anticipated issuing further claims and were in contact with other firms that intended to issue proceedings.
The two firms said they were also approaching Johnson Law Group – the Manchester-based UK arm of the US class action law firm – which has already issued.
The defendants are JLR, authorised dealerships and leasing companies – they agreed that the GLO should be made.
While this was “not determinative of the issue”, Master Cook said, he had concluded a GLO was appropriate.
“Firstly, approximately 42,000 claims have been issued on behalf of approximately 39,000 claimants. I am satisfied that it is likely that more claimants will join the litigation, not least given that the subject vehicles involve a range of models which were acquired from 2014 onwards and remain in market circulation,” he explained.
“Indeed, the parties estimate that over a million current and former owners of subject vehicles might be eligible to join the litigation.
“In the circumstances, establishment of a group register, the publicising of the GLO and a suitable cut-off date are therefore all valuable case management features of a GLO which will further the overriding objective.”
With other law firms likely to bring claims which fell within the scope of the GLO, the case management mechanism of appointing lead solicitors and establishing the claimant steering committee and the claimant solicitors’ group “would therefore provide an effective and cost efficient mechanism for managing any further claims advanced by any such firms”.
Further, a GLO would provide “a suitable mechanism” to resolve the overarching issues, including the level of damages, “in an effective manner”.
Master Cook said it was also “of some relevance” that similar claims being pursued in the US and Australia were being managed in an equivalent manner.
He added that the president of the King’s Bench Division, Dame Victoria Sharp, had provided her consent to making the GLO order.
CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang and Linklaters are acting for the defendants.
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