Diesel Gate seems such a long time ago, and it is, we’ve had 6 Prime Ministers since then. That has to be decades, right?
Checks notes, it was late 2015 !! We were still a part of the largest trading block in the world, and Fifty Shades of Grey was the big film of the year.
Since then you will probably have come across various adverts on social media asking if you owned a diesel vehicle between certain dates as Claimant solicitors advertise to obtain compensation for you if you have, and meet the criteria.
As a reminder, some manufacturers intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to activate their emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing, with emissions being significantly higher during normal driving.
Well, almost 9 years since that first report of manipulation, the lawyers are close to beginning the claim in the Courts in the UK.
The first salvo fired concerns costs.
In large cases, over £100,000, and Dieselgate is valued at £6Bn, the parties are obliged to file what are known as Costs Budgets, their costs broken down for every stage of the proceedings, from witness statements, to disclosing evidence, to the final Trial.
The parties, and the Judge, then argue whether the costs are reasonably calculated, and they can be reduced to what the Court consider a reasonable amount. For instance, if you think it will cost £20,000 to draft witness statements, but the Court decide you can do it for £10,000, then even if it does cost you £20,000 you are capped at £10,000 and cannot receive any more than £10,000.
A 3 day Costs Hearing took place recently and the costs that the Claimants expected it would cost them to pursue the claim to a Trial, being £208m, have been slashed like a Tory majority down to £52m, a reduction of 75%.
The Defendants did not get away Scot-Free, their costs budget of £212m has been reduced to £114m.
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Eye watering I’m sure we all agree.
The Judges observed:
‘There appears to be little effort – nor, it seems, incentive – to run this litigation in a manner so as to minimise, as far as reasonably possible, the number of lawyers and the hours they suggest they need to work in order sensibly to progress this litigation.’
An example of this was:
For the trial itself, the claimants’ counsel team is charging £440,000 a week and the solicitors £1m a week. The latter charge is based upon 34 lawyers working 12-hour days. The Judges said
‘Even where it is accepted that… there will be ongoing work ‘behind the scenes’ to assist the counsel team, it is obviously wholly incredible to consider that there may be any real value added by such a fleet of lawyers’.
And so we now have agreed costs budgets, the litigation can commence.
The High Court has set a trial date for the Mercedes group case in February 2025, with all actions likely to conclude by 2026.
These cases are against the vehicle manufacturers, not traders, it remains to be seen what sort of compensation consumers may receive.
Of course, when our members use the services of Lawgistics Litigation for the Motor Trade CIC, if legal proceedings are involved, our fees are much more reasonable. Please contact us immediately if you receive legal proceedings or want to enquire about issuing them in a dispute.
