1 / 10

The Dutch proposal for collective settlements:new trends in multi party actions. An evaluation.

The Dutch proposal for collective settlements:new trends in multi party actions. An evaluation. Presentation for the British Institute for International Comparative Law 27 th of June 2005. Outline presentation. • Main features • Background proposal • Comments

curtishenderson
Download Presentation

The Dutch proposal for collective settlements:new trends in multi party actions. An evaluation.

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Dutch proposal for collective settlements:new trends in multi party actions. An evaluation. Presentation for the British Institute for International Comparative Law 27th of June 2005

  2. Outline presentation • Main features • Background proposal • Comments • Personal Note

  3. Main features • Collective settlement out of court by defendants and representative organisations (if defendants don’t want to: (almost) end of story) • Parties can jointly ask the judge to aprove it; • Court of Appeal Amsterdam • Damage scheduling; • Opt out possibility;

  4. (Factual) background proposal • 1986: DES litigation • 1992: Supreme Court ruling ‘a rainmaker’ • DES Register Centre: 18.000 in 6 weeks • 440.000 (220.000 DES mothers; 110.000 doughters and sons) • 1999: DES Fund and settlement (€ 34 million)

  5. (Judicial) background proposal • Dutch Law: only collective actions for injunctive relief and ‘declarations’ • Initiated by representative ‘interest organisations’ • No ‘damages’ class/collective actions • Defendants want final settlement • (not ad hoc) Legislation is needed

  6. (Political) background proposal • Public (and thus political) pressure to resolve the DES matter • Preparation of proposal • Consulations with ‘interested parties’ • Not with Dutch Consumer Organisation • January 2004: presentation of proposal on Collective Settlements • Summer 2005: unacted • 2006 (20 years later): start of distribution

  7. The comments • Judiciary: ‘not amused’ • The Bar: different reactions • Nice • Nice but useless • Consumer organisation: ‘angry and disappointed’

  8. Personal note • Two determinants: • Working Group (the Dutch ‘troika’) Fundamental revieuw of the Dutch law of civil procedure • PhD • Working Group suggestions • Involve judiciary in pre-action stage • Less codification: more flexibility

  9. Personal note • PhD • See previous • Focuss on really important matters like dealing with the ‘limited fund’-issue • Pay attention to the invluence of (financial) incentives and the dynamics of collective settlements; they generate volume • Consider the possibilities of ‘private law enforcement’ in ‘no bother cases’ (or large scale small claim litigation)

More Related