Legal Experts Say case for Mis-selling is Clear

 

Unite Commence Legal Action Against Ford
read the full writ here

The Unite Union on January 28, 2011 lodged a claim in the High Court against Ford Motor Company over the pension rights of its former staff who were transferred to Visteon UK in 2000. Unite’s lawyers are seeking compensation from Ford for providing misleading pension’s advice to its employees who transferred to Visteon UK.

Unite’s claim states that the information provided to its employees, in order to assist them in deciding whether or not to transfer their accrued pension benefits, was misleading.

The Visteon UK pension scheme had a deficit of £350m when Visteon UK went into administration in 2009 and Unite’s claim states that Ford is liable for this shortfall.

Dennis Varney, VPAG Committee Member, has been selected by Unite to be the principal test case in its claim.

The following is a brief summary of the normal court procedure involved with such a claim.  

  • Proceedings issued - This is done by completing a claim form and Particulars of Claim. These documents, which set out the details of the claim, are filed at Court along with the relevant Court fee.
  • Defence (and Counterclaim) - Unless the Defendant admits the claim, s/he must file a Defence. If the Defendant has a counterclaim, now is the best time to make it.
  • Default judgement - If the Defendant fails to file a Defence, the Claimant can ask the Court to enter judgment against the Defendant without any further steps being taken.
  • Request for Further Information - Parties have the option of asking the other side for further information, about the claim or the Defence.
  • Summary judgment/strike out - If a party believes that there is no case to answer, or that the other side’s case is without merit, it can apply for summary judgment or strike out. The Court is asked to decide whether the claim or the Defence should be allowed to continue.
  • File allocation questionnaire - The Court sends both parties a questionnaire asking for further details about each party’s position. This allows the Court to “allocate” the claim to the appropriate “track”, depending on the type of claim, the value, and the complexity.
  • Case Management Conference - In most High Court Cases, the Court will order a CMC. The parties must attend before a Master (a junior judge) to discuss how the claim should proceed, and the timetable. It is sometimes possible for the parties to agree this between themselves
  • Disclosure - This is the process by which each party lists the documents which are to be used in the litigation.
  • Inspection - After disclosure, each party is entitled to look at the other party’s documents.
  • Exchange of witness statements - Parties prepare statements for all their witnesses of fact. This will form the basis of evidence given at trial.
  • Pre Trial Review - In certain cases, the Court will order a PTR, where the parties attend Court in order to discuss outstanding issues, and the timetable for trial.
  • Preparation of Skeleton Arguments - Each party prepares a Skeleton, which is supplied to the Court, and to the other side before trial. This document, which sets out each party’s case in a summary form, is usually prepared by the barristers.
  • Trial - The length of the trial will depend on the volume of documentation and the number of witnesses.
  • Judgment - At the end of the trial, the Judge will usually “reserve judgment”. This means that the judgment will be given once the Judge has had time to consider all the evidence.

Understandably the Unite claim will only be actioned on behalf of union members, should the claim go all the way to trial. It will however represent all Visteon UK Pension Plan (VUKPP) members if an out of court settlement can be reached.  

A similar claim will therefore need to be submitted on behalf of any non union (VUKPP) members. This claim will be similar to the Unite claim, and will be placed on hold once filed, awaiting the outcome of the Unite claim. The VPAG Strategy Committee has elected Simon Harding to oversee this additional claim and he is currently seeking legal advice as to how this should best be implanted. VPAG will then endeavour to contact all known non union pension plan members to let them know the steps involved and potential costs involved, and will be asking the pension plan trustees to help in the contact process.  However, if you are a non union pension plan member or know of anybody who is in this position, can you please contact Simon Harding either by email: sjharding20@btinternet.com or by phone on 07763 561199.

Pension Regulator Update

VPAG was privileged to participate in a meeting with Bill Galvin, the Chief Executive of the Pension Regulator (PR).  The meeting was held in December following an initiative by Bethan Jenkins, Welsh Assembly Member for South Wales West.

Bill Galvin advised Bethan and VPAG that the PR enquiries were still ongoing though it was proving difficult to identify any significant funds that could be reclaimed for the Visteon UK pension plan (VUKPP).

VPAG provided insights to the PR as to where the PR might direct their enquiries with regard to Visteon’s European operations and advised Bill Galvin that they expected the PR investigations to conclude with legal actions being taken against any VUKPP trustees who could be proven not to have acted in the best interests of the plan members to provide a warning to trustees of other pension plans that the PR took inappropriate actions by trustees very seriously.  This was in response to a statement made by Bill Galvin that the PR did not see any benefit from prosecuting a couple of trustees. 

Select Committee Enquiry

 VPAG’s focus is being concentrated on identifying to the Chairman of the Work & Pensions and Business, Innovation & Skills Select Committees those areas where change needs to be considered to endeavour to prevent similar actions being carried out by other company’s who look to avoid honouring their pension commitments to their employees.  Areas identified include the need for an independent chairman of the Board of Trustees, the make up of the Trust Deed and Rules, the make up of Trustee Boards and the need for the PR to carry out independent audits of Pension Plan Trustee minutes.