Group Litigation Order
Information from Ian Cohen, PITY II Solicitor

On 1st December 2000, Mr. Justice Penry-Davey, sitting at the Liverpool District Registry, ordered that any cause of action for psychiatric trauma suffered by parents of those children caused by the retention of organs by the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital NHS Trust and/or their predecessors, be subject to what is known as a Group Litigation Order.

A Group Litigation Order, in basic terms, is an attempt by the Court to effectively manage Court proceedings, which may be commenced by a large group of litigants and the issue of the proceedings contains a substantial amount of "Generic" issues. The rationale behind the making of such an Order, is an attempt to save unnecessary Court time and costs and duplication of effort amongst solicitors.

Further to the Group Litigation Order being granted, a subsequent hearing took place on the 1st of February 2001, when the Court heard evidence from Messrs. Goodmans and Messrs. E. Rex Makin & Co, as to who ought to be appointed in the role of "Lead Solicitors". After hearing the evidence, Goodmans were formally appointed as Lead Solicitors, with effect from 1st February 2001.

It is important for potential Litigants to appreciate that Goodmans being appointed Lead Solicitors, does not effect, at all, those parents/potential Litigants who have already engaged another firm of solicitors. Those solicitors will still be responsible for the day to day management of those cases and it would only be Generic issues, which would be dealt with by Goodmans.

If you are represented by a firm of solicitors other than Goodmans and you have questions relating to Goodmans' appointment as Lead Solicitors, then please contact your own solicitors for further guidance on this point.

The next step within the litigation is to register with the Court details of all Litigants who wish to pursue compensation claims.

The register at Court will include:-

There are various additional requirements, which the individual solicitors will be able to attend to, however, one of the areas that the solicitors will now be considering, is the issue of funding the litigation. Effectively, there appears to be two options, namely:-

We are currently exploring the options available to Litigants and further communication will be sent on this point.

For those parents represented by Goodmans, they will shortly be receiving communication from this firm, requesting them to confirm whether they do in fact wish to proceed with a compensation claim.

We would ask all parents to ensure that they provide clear instructions on this point to their solicitor, as at some date in the future, the register of all Litigants will be closed, however, for the time being, there is no cut off date and we would envisage that this date will probably be several months in the future.