Peter Brown: Scots law must include class action procedure

Published on Monday 9 March 2009 08:51

WHAT is a class action procedure? What relevance is it to the average Scot? Does the average Scot have it?

A class action procedure is a legal mechanism whereby a group of people with a common grievance can collectively take legal action against the perpetrator while sharing the costs and the settlement, if successful. It makes justice affordable to ordinary people with a common complaint.

Class action procedures are typically relevant where a large company has imposed hardship on a community. For example, in the Leith Links area of Edinburgh, the operators of Seafield sewage works have for nearly 40 years released foul-smelling gases into the atmosphere. Another example is the misery caused to thousands of investors by poor risk management practice in the Royal Bank of Scotland.

At present there is no class action procedure in Scots law. Over the last 20 years, however, many other countries have adopted it. England and the United States have it. So stricken investors in the USA can raise a class action on RBS but those in Scotland cannot – and the citizens of Berwick-upon-Tweed could raise a class action on Scottish Water if the Seafield stench pervaded that far!

Maybe there is an alternative means of litigation in Scots law. Well, no. As Leith Links Resident's Association has found out, their previous attempt to engage Scottish Water using one individual representative who might qualify for legal aid failed when that legal aid application was turned down without reason, leaving the association 1500 out of pocket for preliminary legal fees.

Leith Links Residents Association has raised Petition 1234 in the Scottish Parliament. You can view it on the ePetitions page of the Scottish Parliament website and you can register your support by contacting Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP or Malcolm Chisholm MSP.

Scottish justice is supposed to be the finest – let's make sure it stays that way.

Peter Brown is spokesman for the Leith Links Residents' Association