NIGERIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Tayo Oyetibo LP
In practice, summary judgment is most commonly utilised in liquidated monetary claims and straight- forward commercial disputes, where the defendant’s liability is clear and there is no substantive defence to be tried. 7. Mass Claims and Class Actions 7.1 Procedural Mechanisms For a class action to be sustained, the class must be sufficiently numerous such that the joinder of all mem- bers would be impracticable. In addition, there must exist common questions of law or fact affecting the class and the claims or defences of the representa- tive party must be such as to adequately protect the interests of the class as a whole. The scope of such proceedings has traditionally been limited to specific categories of disputes, including matters relating to the interpretation of written instru- ments or statutes, the administration of estates and disputes concerning trust property, as well as custom- ary, family or communal property. Importantly, the threshold in such proceedings is that members of the class must have a common or shared interest, though not necessarily identical claims in all respects, provided that the relief sought is capable of A distinguishing procedural feature is that the appoint- ment of the representative party is subject to the approval of the court and notice of such appointment is typically required, particularly where the interests of absent or unascertainable persons are involved. In this regard, it is recognised that members of the class may not always be individually identifiable or ascertainable, provided that they share a sufficient commonality of interest in the subject matter. 7.3 Relief Both monetary and non-monetary reliefs are availa- ble in class action, with damages typically calculated on an aggregate basis rather than through individual assessments. The primary goal of this relief is to put benefiting the class collectively. 7.2 Standing Requirements
class members back in the position they would have been in without the wrongful act occurring. 7.4 Class Actions, Mass Claims and Arbitration Class actions and mass claims are not commonly pur- sued in arbitration in Nigeria. The Arbitration and Mediation Act 2023 does not make express provision for class or collective arbitra- tion. As such, the Nigerian arbitral framework is gener- ally structured around bilateral proceedings between defined parties, rather than multi-party or class-based claims. 7.5 Trends A notable development is the increasing number of claims by drivers against e-ride hailing companies, in which groups of drivers challenge issues related to contractual classification, commission structures, deactivation policies and broader labour and employ- ment rights. While such claims are not always formally structured as class actions, they are often pursued in a representative capacity or through coordinated individual claims, reflecting a growing willingness to test collective rights in the gig economy. Similarly, there has been a rise in data protection- related claims, particularly by data subjects against data controllers, following the strengthening of Nige- ria’s data protection framework. These claims typically arise from alleged breaches of privacy rights, unlaw- ful processing of personal data or data security fail- ures. Given the inherently widespread impact of such breaches, they lend themselves to multi-party or rep- resentative litigation and are increasingly being framed as collective claims, even within the constraints of existing procedural mechanisms.
8. Evidence 8.1 Disclosure
The approach to disclosure of documents in Nigeria is limited, party-driven and court-controlled, rather than expansive. There is no general duty of full and continuous disclosure. Instead, parties are required to
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