Steering Committee: what is it and how does it work?

If a formal Virgin Media data breach group action court case is formed, it’s likely that a Steering Committee will also be established. What is this, and how does it work?

As a leading firm of consumer action and data breach compensation experts, we’ve been appointed to Steering Committees before. We’re currently on the one for the first GDPR Group Litigation Order (GLO) in England and Wales, the British Airways data breach action. If the Virgin Media data breach action follows a similar course, we may see one for this case too.

If a formal court group action is established, that’s when a Committee will normally be required.

What is a Steering Committee?

A Steering Committee is a group of law firms that are jointly responsible for overall conduct of a set of group proceedings.

When lots of people make a claim for the same thing or arising from the same event, it doesn’t make sense to pursue thousands of cases separately in different courts. What we can do is bring a joint case, often known as a Group Litigation Order, that can allow for all the similar issues to be dealt with together. For example, we could resolve the issue of liability (i.e. fault) for all cases using one set of court proceedings.

There could be thousands or even tens of thousands (or more) clients on the register for a single group action. This is a much more efficient way of resolving the cases.

What do they do?

Although each claimant can have their own law firm that they have instructed, those joint and similar group issues are usually the responsibility of the group of firms that form the Steering Committee.

The Committee is normally appointed by the court, and appointments can be based on a number of things such as the experience and position of the firm. A number of firms can put themselves forward to be on the Committee, as it’s a joint effort for all the claimant law firms to act in the best interests of the overall wider group of claimants.

The Committee can then manage the overall conduct of the group court proceedings. This can include taking the lead on logistical management, court hearings, statements, evidence and more.

Will we see one for the Virgin Media data breach compensation action?

With 900,000 people affected by the data breach and potentially eligible to claim in the action, it seems likely that a formal group court case may be established.

Where this is the case, a formal Steering Committee will then likely be appointed by the Court for the proceedings to be effectively managed. We will know more in the coming months as the compensation action develops. It’s only early days, and there’s a lot to do before any court action may be required.

To sign-up to join the compensation action now, all you need to do is complete the forms on the main section of the website here. With our No Win, No Fee representation, what have you got to lose?

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