News and Events
September 24, 2020
BRAZIL’S HANDLING OF THE MARIANA DAM DISASTER LABELLED A ‘TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE’
A newly published UN human rights council report claims that ‘urgent attention’ is required to address Brazil’s ‘regression from its human rights obligations’.
UN Special Rapporteur Bashkut Tunak revealed that none of the 42 projects to repair damage from the 2015 Mariana dam disaster are on track.
“Following the Mariana and Brumadinho disasters, no corporate executive of Vale, BHP or Samarco stands convicted of criminal conduct,” Bashkut said. “It is a travesty of justice suggesting some in Brazil are indeed above the law.”
September 18, 2020
UK DRIVERS ONE STEP CLOSER TO RECEIVING MERCEDES COMPENSATION
Mercedes-Benz has agreed to pay £1.7 billion to settle diesel emission cheat claims in the United States, meaning Mercedes UK drivers may be one step closer to getting the compensation they deserve.
In a statement, Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes, said that it expected costs of £1.14bn relating to the civil and environmental claims, and £535m relating to the consumer class action.
While the US settlement is welcomed by PGMBM, British drivers may be entitled to far more.
September 11, 2020
PGMBM’s LISA LUNT INTERVIEWED BY SKY NEWS IN PRIMODOS INVESTIGATION.
A Sky News investigation into Primodos, a hormone pregnancy test, has been aired on TV, sharing the harsh realities of the impact the drug had on its victims.
PGMBM’s Head of Medical Liability, Lisa Lunt, was interviewed by Sky News, sharing her thoughts on the latest evidence unveiled in the case.
“I think that Liz’s freedom of information act request is incredibly important,” she said.
“It shows that key changes were made to the report and I have not seen any evidence to suggest that those changes were endorsed by the entire working group: it looks like they were made at the last minute.”
September 3, 2020
BHP TO BE DAMMED?
On 5 November 2015, a devastating mudslide following the collapse of the Fundao Dam tore through Mariana, Brazil. 19 people lost their lives, tonnes of fish died, and over 600km of waterways were polluted in what is regarded as Brazil’s worst environmental disaster. The cause of this collapse is allegedly the negligence of Samarco, the mining company operating the dam, which was created to dispose of toxic iron ore tailings from mine extraction.
PGMBM is bringing claims on behalf of over 200 000 claimants against BHP Billiton, the Anglo-Australian co-parent company of Samarco, for the damages arising from the disaster.
July 14, 2020
PGMBM COMMITS TO ENSURING JUSTICE AS INDEPENDENT REPORT CONFIRMS FAILURES IN BRITISH HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
PGMBM has welcomed the publication of an independent report into the safety and side-effects of treatments recommended and administered by the British healthcare industry. After a two-year study, the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety review was published today by Baroness Cumberlege and entitled First Do No Harm.
The report details the grim history of Primodos, a hormone pregnancy test drug, Sodium Valproate, an anti-epilepsy drug, and vaginal mesh used to support weakened pelvic organs and repair damaged tissue.
June 27, 2020
PGMBM INITIATES LEGAL ACTION AGAINST NISSAN AND RENAULT
PGMBM has announced that it is taking legal action against vehicle manufacturers Renault and Nissan, following allegations that illegal emissions defeat devices have been fitted in a number of cars and vans.
Defeat devices are designed to sense when a car is under specific testing conditions, and accordingly turn on emissions controls, allowing the vehicle to falsely pass regulatory checks.
In acting against Renault and Nissan, the firm will initially try to settle the claim with a pre-action letter and may subsequently seek a Group Litigation Order against the manufacturers, seeking compensation for the hundreds of customers affected.
June 26, 2020
PGMBM INSTRUCTS SERLE COURT IN EASYJET DATA BREACH LITIGATION
PGMBM has instructed Sophie Holcombe and David Blayney QC of Serle Court in ongoing litigation against the aviation giant easyJet.
In May, the airline announced that it had been subjected to a data theft attack, under which the confidential information of over nine million customers had been breached.
One of the UK’s largest data breaches to date, questions have been raised as to the efficacy of the cyber-security measures in place at easyJet, and why the airline chose to notify the UK Information Commissioner’s Office in January, but to delay informing its customers until May.
June 1, 2020
MERCEDES DIESEL EMISSIONS SCANDAL: PGMBM WILL BE ACTING ON BEHALF OF THOUSANDS OF CLAIMANTS WHO WERE AFFECTED
PGMBM has filed a claim against Daimler AG, parent company of Mercedes-Benz, in the Liverpool High Court. The case relates to a Mercedes diesel emissions scandal, which involves the use of defeat devices (also called ‘cheat devices’) on an estimated half million Mercedes diesel vehicles first registered between 2007 and 2018 in the United Kingdom.
These defeat device software systems change the way the vehicles function in test scenarios, to help them meet required emissions and performance levels, when in day-to-day use, the vehicles would in fact fall well short of that mark.
May 22, 2020
PGMBM ISSUES CLASS ACTION CLAIM ON BEHALF OF EASYJET CUSTOMERS OVER MAJOR DATA BREACH
The British airline group EasyJet announced on 19 May 2020 that sensitive personal data of nine million customers from around the world had been exposed in a “sophisticated” data breach. The cyber-attack occurred in January 2020 but despite notifying the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office at that time, EasyJet waited four months to notify its customers.
PGMBM, a leading international group litigation specialist have issued the claim form on behalf of impacted customers, after having been contacted by numerous affected people when the data breach was made public.
May 13, 2020
SPG LAW IS NOW PGMBM: LEARN ABOUT THE REBRAND
Our lawyers are dedicated to helping ordinary people fight for justice against the largest multinational corporations in the world. We are passionate about holding these corporate giants to account for the devastating and often irreparable damage they have inflicted on people and the environment. We are currently taking on companies such as BHP, British Airways and Volkswagen to secure the compensation our clients deserve.
With PGMBM, we are growing our international team of leading solicitors and barristers to best equip the firm to expand the reach of our services to help even more people.
Oct 4, 2019
HIGH COURT IN LONDON GRANTED A GROUP LITIGATION ORDER FOLLOWING SEPTEMBER 2018 BRITISH AIRWAYS DATA BREACH
SPG Law, acting on behalf of thousands of BA customers in a group action lawsuit against embattled airline following its catastrophic 2018 data breach has been granted a group litigation order by the High Court in London.
British Airways is facing legal claims from thousands of customers whose sensitive personal data was stolen and compromised by third parties who breached the company’s online reservations systems.
In September 2018, BA announced that their online reservation systems had been accessed by an unauthorised third party.
Aug 3, 2019
PRIMODOS: FIRMS AND GOVT FACE LEGAL ACTION OVER CLAIMS PREGNANCY DRUG ‘DAMAGED BABIES’
Primodos was a hormone-based pregnancy test, manufactured by Schering, now Bayer PLC, first made available for sale in the UK in 1956 and was withdrawn from sale in 1978.
The drug consisted of two pills, to be taken in two consecutive days, and detected pregnancy by inducing a period in a woman who was not pregnant. [1]However, many families believe that if the mother was pregnant, it damaged or even killed their children in the womb.
July 1, 2019
SPG LAW INSTRUCTS EXCHANGE CHAMBERS ON “DIESELGATE” CLASS ACTION
A number of barristers from Exchange Chambers have been instructed by SPG Law to advise on the Volkswagen “Dieselgate” class action.
SPG Law are acting for over 16,000 car owners who bought a diesel VW, Audi, Skoda or Seat car between 2008 and 2015.
On the 18 September 2015 it was first alleged by US authorities that VW had sought to cheat the US emissions testing regime in respect of NOx emissions by fitting their vehicles with illegal “defeat devices”. The German authorities confirmed shortly thereafter that vehicles fitted with similar software had been sold across Europe.
May 7, 2019
BHP BILLITON ‘WOEFULLY NEGLIGENT’ OVER BRAZIL DAM COLLAPSE
The worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history has triggered one of the biggest legal claims ever filed in a British court.
The Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Billiton is being sued for about £5bn by Brazilian victims of the Samarco dam collapse in Mariana four years ago.
The class action case was filed in the Liverpool High Court by the UK-based SPG Law – currently known as PGMBM Law – on behalf of over 200,000 individuals and organisations affected by the disaster.
Nineteen people died after toxic waters from the failed tailings dam surged through the village of Bento Rodrigues on 5 November 2015.
April 12, 2018
WOMEN SOUNDED ALARM ON ESSURE BIRTH CONTROL DEVICE
Essure, manufactured by Bayer HealthCare, is the only non-surgical permanent form of birth control for women in the UK. Made of a metal coil and plastic PET fibers, the device is known to slice through the uterus and fallopian tubes, migrate into the pelvis or abdomen, and cause allergic and autoimmune reaction to the materials, maiming thousands of women.
[1] More than 750,000 Essure devices have been sold worldwide since it was introduced in 2002, according to Bayer. The product, long presented as a less invasive alternative to surgical sterilization, is no longer sold outside the U.S. for “commercial reasons,” company spokeswoman Courtney Mallon said in an email.
PGMBM (a trading name of Excello Law Limited) – SRA License Number 512898