Leigh Day takes Link to court to claim losses suffered by investors in the Woodford Equity Income Fund

Leigh Day has issued a claim form on behalf of an initial group of 100 WEIF investors to begin the action to recover their losses.

This step follows a detailed and extensive letter before action and significant pre-action correspondence which Leigh Day has had with Link’s lawyers, Clifford Chance. Link has made clear its intent to defend the claims vigorously. The case has now reached a stage where the legal team for the investors feel it has become necessary to issue proceedings to trigger a court timetable and take the matter through to trial as speedily as possible.

Leigh Day is currently instructed by over 11,000 claimants. The firm will be issuing proceedings on a rolling basis for all of its clients. It will seek to consolidate the claims under a Group Litigation Order, where the risks, costs and benefits of the group action can be shared by all the claimants on the group action register.

Boz Michalowska, partner at law firm Leigh Day, comments:

“This is a big step forward in the legal action which we hope will allow investors of the Woodford Equity Income Fund to get justice and their hard-earned pensions and savings returned to them.”

The legal action brought on behalf of investors by Leigh Day is against Link as the fund’s authorised corporate director, which oversaw the WEIF on behalf of those individuals who invested in the fund. The claims made by Leigh Day on behalf of investors are that Link was in breach of FCA rules in the way it managed and monitored the fund, and this ultimately led to the fund’s collapse, causing ordinary investors loss and damage.

Cliff Weight, Woodford Campaign Director at ShareSoc said:

“This is a huge step forward in getting compensation for the many thousands of unfortunates who lost money in Woodford’s WEIF funds. Leigh Day’s issuing of proceedings is a big milestone.”