Volkswagen Emmissions Compensation [Merged]

yeti8 · 5 August 2018 at 12:48PM

I am aware that there is a Group Action underway against Volkswagen for compensation to be paid to eligible existing and historic Volkswagen owners whose cars are involved in the Emissions Scandal. We are advised that to become eligible to receive compensation, we need to join one of the legal companies who have joined forces (in a cartel I believe) to bring the Action against Volkswagen. The problem is that when you sign up, you agree to give 33% of your compensation to the legal company - yes its no win, no fee, but still thats a lot of cash.

What we don't know and my question to anyone legally savvy on here is, should the Action be upheld by whoever has to do so and Volkswagen do have to make a payout or equivalent - IF I HAVEN'T SIGNED UP TO THE GROUP ACTION BEFOREHAND, WILL I THEN BE ABLE TO MAKE A CLAIM AGAINST VOLKSWAGEN MYSELF .. Thus avoiding the 33% fee payable to the lawyers. Or is the Class Action a closed book, and once the decision is made only those who registered are eligible for the outcome.

In Short - if I don't sign up to potentially give away a third of any compensation, could i apply afterwards and get all the compensation by approaching VW directly once the legal precedent is set.

Its a question that no-one that I can see is asking, the ambulance chasers clearly aren't advising as they want the 33% but the support sites etc are strangely quiet.

So I am reaching out to anyone who may be in the know for advice - there are 3 months to sign up to the Group Action and give away 33% of any "reward".
Note - this is not a question about the ethics of why 33% - clearly the legal companies are taking a risk and will want recompense for that risk. This is fundamentally what are the options post any positive decision for those of us to help us decide how we could proceed.

k3lvc · 5 August 2018 at 12:55PM

33% of nothing is nothing - both the car and you could be long gone before this is ever settled

Johno100 · 5 August 2018 at 12:59PM

Compensation for what exactly?

takman · 5 August 2018 at 1:27PM

What financial loss have you suffered that makes you eligible for compensation ?

neilmcl · 5 August 2018 at 1:37PM

You've already started a thread in the Motoring forum, let's leave it at that shall we.

pmduk · 5 August 2018 at 3:14PM

So you want someone else to pay for the court costs while you sit back and reap any rewards! Rather parasitic in my opinion.

Hermione_Granger · 5 August 2018 at 3:32PM

pmduk wrote: »

So you want someone else to pay for the court costs while you sit back and reap any rewards! Rather parasitic in my opinion.

Parasitic or moneysaving? (which after all is the idea of this site).

Merlin139 · 5 August 2018 at 3:45PM

I owned a VW before does that mean I can get compensation? If So where do I sign up?

Merlin139 · 5 August 2018 at 3:47PM

I owned a VW before does that mean I can get compensation?

If So where do I sign up?

Why do I need to be compensated?

Is the compensation for owning the VW?

Not sure what its for?

AdrianC · 5 August 2018 at 4:02PM

Johno100 wrote: »

Compensation for what exactly?

Quite. It's all a massive bandwagon of hype over nothing, with nobody bothering to remember the single most relevant detail - the VW emission scandal was only over cheating the rules of US emissions testing, not European. They passed the European testing within the rules.