The Court of Appeal has granted a firm permission to appeal a recent High Court decision which held that complainants who accept an award of compensation pursuant to a Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) determination may subsequently seek to "top up" that award through court action (Clark v In Focus Asset Management & Tax Solutions Ltd [2012] EWHC 3669 (QB) - see our e-bulletin on the High Court decision). That decision is in direct conflict with previous High Court authority and was met with surprise across the financial services industry, with financial institutions and insurers fearing that claimants would now have "two bites of the cherry".
The appeal is expected to be heard between June and October 2013 and hopefully will resolve the current state of uncertainty as to the interplay between the FOS process and seeking redress through the courts.
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