YOU only have to look at the way Royal Bank of Scotland settled rights issue-related claims with shareholders to get an idea of how scattergun legal action against banks can be.
Not only did several action groups with the same end goal launch claims against the bank, but the outcome they achieved varied massively, with those who settled early getting around half the compensation awarded to those who chose to fight on.
The fact that there were many thousands more who got nothing at all because they didn’t launch a claim in time underlines the issues involved first in recognising you might have a claim and then in knowing how to bring it.
Which is why it makes sense for a range of advisers as well as customers and shareholders to be on the lookout for signs of potential wrongdoing.
After all, while it takes a legal team to launch a court claim, the lawyers can only do that once they have been made aware of it.
If more people know what to look out for then it should reduce the risk of injured parties - most of whom have no experience of the legal system - finding themselves time-barred when it comes to seeking redress.
The banks have used their deep pockets to fend off plenty of litigation up until now, but their shareholders and customers have something arguably more powerful: collective will.
Taking on the might of a financial institution may be a daunting prospect but, as the various RBS shareholder groups have already proved, when there’s safety in numbers it doesn’t have to be a hopeless one.
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