In short, the claimants will collectively seek to show that Link, in its capacity as Authorised Corporate Director of the Woodford Fund, (i) failed to ensure that the Woodford Fund was managed in accordance with the statements set out in the prospectus, and (ii) failed to ensure the Woodford Fund’s compliance with the Collective Investment Scheme Handbook (‘COLL’), and that (iii) the claimants suffered losses as a result.

We are also considering claims against other entities.

More detail can be found under the ‘The Claim’ page.

Fill out the form on our website here. You will also need to agree to and sign our terms and conditions.

You must complete the client engagement process in one sitting. This should not take longer than a few minutes. It will be very inconvenient to us if we receive registration documents that are only partially completed.

We also ask you a number of necessary questions in a questionnaire. You will be able to return to complete this at a later date, although we may not be able to advance your claim if you fail to do so. It may be necessary in the course of the litigation to return to you for further information if the Court directs us to do so.

If you would like to update your details at a later date once you have completed the process (for example because you have moved to a new house) please contact Woodford@harcusparker.co.uk.

Following its collapse, the Woodford Fund has found it difficult to dispose, or has been unable to dispose, of many of its unquoted stocks, and in circumstances where it has, the assets have been significantly written down in value. We estimate that the average loss to shareholders is approximately 49%. You will be entitled to compensation if the claims succeed.

The Woodford scandal should not have occurred. The claim will allege that were it not for the breaches of duty of Link and others you would not have lost your money. Collective litigation is a way of forcing change and ensuring better supervision of investments in future.

If you bought the shares in your own name and your name appeared on the register of shareholders, you are a direct investor. Investing ‘indirectly’ means that your shares are not recorded on the register of shareholders for the Company in your name, but on your behalf by a platform (e.g. Hargreaves Lansdown), in a bond, by a nominee, by the trustees of your self-invested personal pension (SIPP), or equivalent through a tax-efficient wrap (such as an ISA, PEP or TESSA).

Many funds, including funds managed by Hargreaves Lansdown, Quilter, the Share Centre, Octopus Investments and Gemini, held positions in the Woodford Fund. It is down to these funds to ensure that they claim on behalf of their investors. You should contact the manager to ensure that it is making a claim on your behalf.

If you sold your shares before suspension for a profit, you will not be able to join the claim, as you will have no claim.

We cannot provide exact details of how much each Claimant’s claim is worth. Whilst we have undertaken our own assessment of the likely overall quantum, the exact sum payable to each individual Claimant will have to be determined by reference to their individual circumstances and financial expert evidence.

The starting point, for Claimants who succeed in satisfying the Court on the question of liability, is for them to be put back into the position that they would have been in had the Company not breached s90 or s138D of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Additionally, any consequential losses suffered may be claimed.

We will advise Claimants on the losses they are able to claim when they become clients.

No, but we will start issuing claims as soon as we can, and therefore invite you to submit your interest as soon as possible.

It is difficult to put a timeframe on the claim, but we hope to have a result within the next two years. Legal cases can, however, take a long time to resolve. This will also depend on whether the case is settled.

There is no up-front cost to join the claim. We are acting on a no-win, no-fee basis which means that you will only have to pay us if we are successful. If you are successful you will pay us 35% of your damages, plus VAT. We will also cover the third party costs involved in bringing your claim to trial, but you will only have to pay us for those to the extent that we can recover them from the defendant.

It is very important that you read our full terms and conditions and other documents provided when you sign up. If you have any questions about any of the documents you can email us at woodford@harcusparker.co.uk and someone will get back to you.

If we win but Link and / or another potential defendant or defendants are unable to comply with an order to pay damages to the claimant group, you would become an unsecured creditor and would have to wait until the outcome of the liquidation / insolvency process to find out whether there were any funds available to pay your damages. It is unlikely that you would receive the full value of your claim in this scenario.

We consider it highly unlikely that this situation will arise. Link is part of a large global group. It manages around £85 billion of assets in this jurisdiction on behalf of around 100 funds. If Link were allowed to go into administration, the consequences would be far-reaching.

If we lose you will not have to pay our fees or pay us back for the costs involved in bringing your claim to trial, but the usual rule in English litigation is that the losing party pays the costs of the winning party. We will make sure that we have insurance in place to protect you if the claim is unsuccessful, but there is a small risk that you may not be covered in full, for example if the insurance fails. The costs for which you will theoretically be liable will be shared with thousands of other claimants, so that in the unlikely event that the insurance fails, your own exposure will be very low.

You will need to show that you invested in the shares either personally or through an intermediary. You will also be asked to provide evidence of when you purchased your shares, how much you paid. If you sold some of them before suspension, you will need to provide evidence of how many shares you sold, when and how much you received.

This is unlikely. A small number of claimants might be asked to give evidence, but this is only likely to be a few out of thousands of claimants.

Yes. You can cancel within 14 days of joining the claim without incurring any costs. If you decide to cancel you will need to notify Harcus Parker in writing – when you sign up you will be provided with a cancellation form that you can use.

Once you have become a claimant, however, should you be outside the 14-day cancellation period outlined above, you will be able be able to withdraw only with the permission of fellow claimants and/or with the permission of the court. The normal position is that a discontinuing claimant is ordered by the court to pay a share of the defendants’ costs up to the date of discontinuance. Any such court order would be the sole responsibility of the discontinuing claimant. It is very unlikely that the payment under any such court order would be covered by the insurance arrangements we will have in place.

If you are not sure about whether you wish to proceed, then in the first instance we would recommend that you re-read this summary, a document which sets out the process in plain English, which will (we hope) answer any questions that you may have.

If, after reading the summary, you still have queries then please email us at Woodford@harcusparker.co.uk.

The barrister team is led by Nicholas Vineall QC of 4 Pump Court.

We worked with Mr Vineall QC in the Arch cru group litigation. He is assisted by James Hatt.

Yes. Provided that you have merely registered an interest as opposed to having signed a contract of retainer, you are free to choose what you want to do. We are aware that some firms have been canvassing for expressions of interest only, and that their focus of investigation is different from ours.

When you sign up to our clients’ claim, you are joining a collective action which is calculated to bring about the most efficient and cost effective solution for our clients. In circumstances in which we believe that we can recover all of the claimable losses from a limited number of defendants who had responsibilities to all of the investors, we do not presently see an advantage to our clients in making individual claims against additional defendants. If you take an alternative view you should seek advice elsewhere.

Absolutely – you can call us on 0203 0867 494 to speak to a member of the team or email us at Woodford@harcusparker.co.uk and someone will get back to you.

We would be very happy to discuss any other questions you might have. You can call us on 0203 0867 494 to speak to a member of the team or email us at Woodford@harcusparker.co.uk and someone will get back to you.