Corporate & Securities Law

A claimant-friendly EU legal framework

By Werner R. Kranenburg

Last week The Lawyer ran a Special Report series of articles on the topic of Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution, at least one of which is of interest here, namely the one by Daan F. Lunsingh Scheurleer of NautaDutilh NV. This week’s The Lawyer contains an excerpt of an interview with Anthony Maton, one of the partners in the London office of Cohen Milstein Hausfeld & Toll PLLC. Both deal with, to some extent, the EU becoming a more claimant-friendly environment.

In ‘Oiling the wheels’, Lunsingh Scheurleer and senior associate Dr. Ianika N. Tzankova discuss the burden on defendants in US class actions of foreign claimants and class certification, and Dutch rules governing collective settlements in an EU context. The Royal Dutch Shell settlement, ‘a potential groundbreaker’, and Vivendi’s class certification are cited as examples, among others. It is noted here that Lunsingh Scheurleer acted as counsel to two pension funds that were instrumental in the Royal Dutch Shell action’s settlement proceedings, namely ABP and another. (source)

Maton, in his comparison of UK firms with US firms and their respective handling of claimant actions, points to among other things the same procedural differences as Lunsingh Scheurleer does: “The process in the States… with contingency fees, juries and [in anti-trust cases] triple damages, means a very different approach. It?s an approach that we believe would not work in the European arena.” He however is reported to believe that, in the context of anti-trust claims, “it will not be long before there is a workable regime.”

Lower transaction costs is one factor in Lunsingh Scheurleer’s case for Europe as the forum of choice for the settlement of European mass disputes that exclude US claimants: “[T]ransaction costs in the EU are lower than in the US due to the absence of a jury system, extensive discovery and far-reaching no cure, no pay arrangements. Lower transaction costs are in the interest of both plaintiffs and defendants.”

The Maton interview excerpt is complemented by a two-minute segment in The Lawyer’s monthly podcast, October Edition (also available on iTunes).

What’s more: Dr. Tzankova joined NautaDutilh in 2007 after obtaining her PhD, with a thesis entitled ‘Access to justice in mass disputes’, from Tilburg University where earlier this month she has been appointed for a five year term as extraordinary professor of Comparative Mass Litigation. (press release; also see the Nederlands Juridisch Dagblad, in Dutch)

Full post as published by With Vigour and Zeal on October 22, 2007 (boomark / email).