Professor Gerard Whyte:

There can be issues relating to class actions. The experience in the US indicates that there are issues to be addressed, for example, identifying a class. Deputy Martin Kenny referred to 150 people with medical problems where the medical situation might vary from one to another. It is a question of deciding whether there is sufficient similarity in the cases to be a class. In the US the class action works on the basis of two or three people presenting with a common problem. The action goes ahead in the name of those individuals but subsequently if anybody else has been similarly affected they can get the benefit of the ruling. This sets the context for the second problem which is that there are several people driving the action, there is a class behind them but will they properly represent the interests of their fellow class members or could their particular issues be addressed to the detriment of issues that other members of the class might want to see highlighted? This type of problem can present itself. I am not sure that it is possible to come up with a model that will avoid those. We have to just engage with them on a case by case basis.