Landmark judgment today on pensions

NIC CICUTTI

Victims of the personal pensions scandal will hear today whether they have lost their right to sue for compensation in court because of a move by insurers to block legal action against them.

A landmark legal judgment will rule on whether some of Britain's biggest insurers, including Prudential, TSB Life and Irish Life, have won a stay of proceedings launched against them by a Bristol legal firm, Ringrose Wharton.

At stake are the cases of many thousands of pension policyholders who were allegedly mis-sold personal pensions and who might want to seek redress through the courts.

About 75 cases are immediately affected by today's ruling, being given at Bristol Mercantile Court. Up to 250 more Ringrose Wharton clients, many of them members of the Royal College of Nursing and the GMB general union, are almost at the stage where writs might be issued.

Experts believe the hearings will determine the future of at least 1,000 more cases being prepared for court hearings throughout the country. Thousands more will be put off from proceeding further if insurers win their stay.

Bill Day, national pensions officer for the GMB, said: "We hope that the application by the life companies will be thrown out. We can be sure that if it is not, the amount of compensation paid out will be less and fewer people will get it."

Lawyers at Ringrose Wharton took action last year as part of a wider legal offensive against insurers involving several law firms across Britain.

But the insurers argued in court that Ringrose Wharton's clients must wait for the outcome of the pensions review launched by City regulators before proceeding with writs against the companies.

The review, announced by the Personal Investment Authority nine months ago, sets out detailed procedures for dealing with individual cases.

Lawyers at Ringrose Wharton believe the stay of proceedings will lead to long delays before their clients' cases are finally dealt with.