Personal injury specialist Thompsons Solicitors has set up a new financial mis-selling unit as it seeks to further build on its expertise in large-scale class action litigation.
The move follows the firm’s work in recent years representing Scottish drivers caught up in the “Dieselgate” scandal in which manufacturers stand accused of fitting vehicles with technology to disguise emission levels. Thompsons’ case on behalf of some 1,600 Volkswagen owners – the largest class action suit in Scottish legal history – is currently proceeding to a full legal hearing.
The new financial mis-selling unit it headed up by partner Patrick McGuire and Kieran Smith, an associate who has worked on the lung disease team since joining the firm in 2013.
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The unit is currently acting on behalf of a group of prison officers over pensions advice. Thompsons is also the only legal firm in Scotland representing investors who suffered losses from the collapse of the Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF) in 2019.
“In Scotland there are not a lot of law firms looking into these kinds of areas,” Mr Smith said.
“It is not because there is no merit to the claims. These can be very complex cases, which means you will come up against risks, and invariably you are coming up against defendants, insurers and firms with very deep pockets who will fight the cases.”
The administrator of WEIF, Link Fund Solutions, said yesterday that up to £124 million remains stuck in the former flagship fund of Neil Woodford’s now-defunct investment management business.
Approximately 300,000 investors in the UK have been affected by the fund’s collapse, and it has been suggested that as many as 30,000 of these people could be in Scotland.
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Other areas where Thompsons is exploring class action include the mis-selling of Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) deals, which are now the most popular method of car finance for customers in the UK. Work is also in progress in the field of mis-sold mortgages.
“We are talking about an industry that has gone from one scandal to the next,” Mr Smith added. “It is an industry where offenders have not really been held to account.”
Thompsons Solicitors Scotland grew out of the campaigning law firm established in England in 1921 by William Henry Thompson. Thompsons Scotland was set up in 1979 in Edinburgh and now has more than 200 staff, including 13 partners and six solicitor advocates, across offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Galashiels.
The firm has historically specialised in personal injury compensation claims, and through the years has acted on behalf of victims of road accidents, unsafe working conditions, medical negligence and faulty goods.
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