Austen Hays is a new company that has been set up within Gateley, a listed law firm on the London Stock Exchange AIM market. Although a new business, Austen Hays has been set up by very experienced class action litigators who have over 15 years’ experience in successfully running class action cases at other well-known firms. Austen Hays is approved, and is regulated, by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under registration number 8003694. Gateley Plc itself is a long-established law firm which has been in operation since the 1870s and is also regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The lawyers can be found here.

There will be no cost to you in joining the claim. Austen Hays will represent you on a ‘no win no fee’ basis. The costs of the case, and the risks associated with it, are taken by Austen Hays and any insurers and third party funders. This ensures that you can sign up without worrying about the cost of joining the claim. The claim costs would come out of any payout that is secured from the defendant. You are guaranteed at least 70% of the amount awarded to you and Austen Hays’ and funder costs are capped at 30%. Even if the claim is unsuccessful, there will be no cost to you, provided that you fulfil your obligations set out in the documents that you are required to read and agree to, as part of the sign-up process.

Collective actions, also known as class or group actions, bring together claimants to pursue a single legal claim or claims that can be grouped together for the court to manage collectively. You may be familiar with some of the large-scale collective actions in the UK. For example, the VW diesel emissions collective action was successfully pursued by the Austen Hays litigators securing a positive outcome for over 70,000 claimants. Other high-profile UK collective actions that you may have heard of include the collective action to recover credit card fees, a claim against BT in respect of landline fees, and the recent sub-postmaster collective action. This means that your claim is not going to be dealt with individually by the court; instead, the court will consider the issues that all claimants are pursuing collectively.

To comply with UK money laundering and ‘know your client’ requirements, as solicitors we need to confirm your identity to engage you as a client. We use the accredited software KYC360 (Financial Crime and Compliance50 2024; Chartis RiskTech KYC report 2024) to run an initial check to confirm the data we need so you can sign up to the claim. If the claim is successful, before any monies are awarded, you will need to verify your ID, using the ID-Pal App which is a secure and award-winning ID verification application (Merchant Anti-Fraud Solution of the Year 2020; Best Customer Facing Experience 2023). After your identity has been verified, ID-Pal will delete all documents uploaded by you from the app, you can also delete it from your phone. Your ID will be on our claimant portal and only accessible by the Austen Hays legal team.

Step 1: Complete the questionnaire to see if you are eligible 

Step 2: Review and sign our engagement letter

Please note, you have not joined the claim until you have completed the steps above. 

The High Court has granted an anonymity application for all claimants in our claim against Grindr, ensuring they will all remain anonymous, and their data will be protected throughout the legal proceedings. If you join the claim, your identity will be completely hidden from the public and the Court record. The only exception to this applies to six claimants who voluntarily choose to set aside their anonymity. This is because the claims process requires six claimants to be appointed to a Claimant Committee and their details cannot be anonymous. The role of the Claimant Committee is to make decisions on behalf of the entire claimant group. Joining the committee is voluntary, so those individuals’ details will not be shared unless they clearly agree. 

This varies depending on the behaviour of the defendant and how quickly the court can manage the different stages. In some cases, it can take up to five years. The Austen Hays team are experienced in managing the process to make it as efficient as possible and will keep you informed throughout the process.

Austen Hays supports claimants where there has been an injustice and claimants have suffered a detriment. We do not represent defendants in collective action cases and always work with claimants who have potentially been wronged, to help them try to secure the compensation which they deserve. 

Yes, if you know people who may be eligible to join the claim, please let them know as we want to help as many people as possible who may have been affected by Grindr’s actions.

You can send any queries to enquiries@austenhays.com, or call +44 (0) 121 202 1457, where our team will strive to answer all your questions.