ENGLAND & WALES Law and Practice Contributed by: Damian Taylor, Olga Ladrowska, Lawal Ijaodola and Eleanor Higginson, Slaughter and May
defendant’s solicitor, at the defendant’s usual or last known address or an agreed address, or in another manner permitted by the court. A party located outside England and Wales can be sued if there is a basis for the court to estab- lish jurisdiction over that party (see 3.3 Jurisdic- tional Requirements for a Defendant regarding the grounds on which the court may exercise jurisdiction). In many cases where a claimant seeks to sue a defendant outside England and Wales, the court’s permission is required before the claim form can be served. For a defendant outside England and Wales, the claim form must be served within six months of the proceedings being issued. 3.6 Failure to Respond If the defendant fails to acknowledge service or file a defence within the prescribed time after being served with the claim form, the claimant may request a default judgment. If the court decides to enter a default judgment, the claim will be decided in the claimant’s favour without consideration of the merits. To set aside or vary the default judgment, the defendant would need to apply to the court. The application will only be granted if the defendant can show that: • the judgment was wrongly entered; • they have a real prospect of successfully defending the claim; or • there is another good reason why the judg- ment should be set aside or varied or the defendant should be allowed to defend the claim. 3.7 Representative or Collective Actions Representative or collective actions are permit- ted through various frameworks, namely repre-
sentative actions, group litigation orders (GLOs) and the court’s general case management pow- ers. Whether group proceedings are brought on an opt-in or opt-out basis depends on the type of group litigation structure. The framework for representative actions allows one or more individuals to bring a claim on behalf of a group of individuals with the same interest in the claim. Representative actions are structured on an opt-out basis, where individuals automatically become part of the group unless they specifically opt out. There is no need for members of the represented class to be joined as parties to the action nor to be identified on an individual basis. GLOs provide for the case management of claims that give rise to common or related issues of fact or law. GLOs are brought on an opt-in basis where individuals must express their intent to join the action and authorise the representa- tive to act on their behalf. The court also has the power to consolidate proceedings and manage claims together, using its case management powers. The courts have managed some of the largest multi-party actions using their case management powers. For competition litigation, a collective action regime has been introduced in the Competition Appeal Tribunal. These types of collective pro- ceedings require certification to proceed. The certification mechanism is designed to remove frivolous and unmeritorious claims and to enable the Competition Appeal Tribunal to determine the class representative and class definitions and whether the proceedings should proceed on an opt-in or opt-out basis.
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