Proposals for the introduction of class action-type lawsuits will be published by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell later today.
The proposals are contained in a consultation paper prepared by the Law Reform Commission and are intended to reduce the number of individual compensation cases being brought before the courts.
The consultation paper concerns the procedure to be followed when a number of people are pursuing the same cause of action against the same defendant, as for instance the recent army deafness claims against the Minister for Defence.
In principle, subject to one exception, these are all separate actions to be pursued independently of each other.
Class action suits assume a group's legal team can act in a representative capacity for all plaintiffs, that there is a common interest, narrowly defined and that there is some uncertainty over the extent of the court's authority to award damages.