Judge orders single hearing of all ACS:Law file sharing cases

Twenty-seven people being pursued by ACS:Law for copyright infringement are urged to either contact a solicitor or file a defence, if they haven't already done so, before 17 January next year.

Judge Birss QC, who recently threw-out an attempt by ACS:Law to get default judgements against these people, has ordered a single hearing for all these cases in The Patents County Court.

ACS:Law, which is representing Media Cat, a licensee acting on behalf of some rights holders, will now have to get its paperwork in order. But so will the defendants.

Judge Birss took what he called "the unusual step" after reviewing a letter sent to an Allan Billington, one of those accused of infringing copyright. However the man to whom the letter was sent to is called Aaron Billington and he also claimed proper procedure was not followed.

Announcing his decision, Judge Birss said: "It appears from the letter [from Mr Billington] that the claim form in this case may have been served without a response pack.

"On the face of it, this case and each of the other cases are all related to each other. They have the same claimant [Media Cat] making a closely analogous claim in each case.

"The defendants are different but the nature of the alleged infringements appears to be the same each time.

"In the circumstances I have decided to take an unusual course and to exercise the court's power to make orders of its own initiative under Civil Procedure Rules (CPR Part 3 rule 3.3(1).)

"The order I will make is an order to convene a hearing for directions in this case and in all the parallel Media Cat Ltd cases in the Patents County Court files at the moment. There is no evidence in the courts files that any of these cases have concluded although it is obvious that correspondence between the claimant's solicitors and the defendants takes place.

Although Computeractive has learned that some of the defendants are being represented by Ralli Solicitors LLP and Lordit Solicitors, others have no legal representation or have not filed a defence.

One of the problems faced by ACS:Law is it's paperwork has not appeared to be in order and if it gets this right, those people could find themselves faced with a default judgement. This is also a very important case as it is the first time a court will rule on this issue and could set a precedent.

Michael Forrester, a solicitor in Ralli's IP/media team said: "It appears all pending cases have been grouped together and listed for a case management hearing on 17 January 2011. This, as noted in the Order, is an unusual step. The Court must consider there are some key issues in these cases which need resolving swiftly.

"The hearing early next year will provide a framework for the management of the pending cases. The result will affect thousands of consumers across the United Kingdom who have received these letters."

Judge Birss said he had set the January date because it was "sufficiently far in advance that the parties have time to prepare".

The hearing will take place at 10.30am on Monday 17 January 2011 at Court 3, St Dunstan's House, 133 - 137 Fetter Lane, London EC4A 1HD (Tel: Clerk to HH Judge Birss QC 020 7947 7754)

People who are either involved in the current cases, or who have received copyright infringement letters from a solicitor, can contact Ralli by email to get a free assessment of their case.

Andrew Crossley of ACS:Law declined to comment.