A United High Court will hear evidence on Thursday that a UK-based law firm, CW Law, is accused of trying to unlawfully benefit from the claims of over 7,000 claimants in a dispute over oil spills in Nigeria.
According to the statement issued by Leigh Day through its spokesman, David Standard, The Marble Arch based law firm, CW Law, are accused of entering into settlement talks with Shell Petroleum Development Company on behalf of 7,400 villagers of Bodo in the Niger Delta, who it is alleged they didn’t represent and who were not clients of the firm.
With a population of 14,000 people, the great majority of the villagers are represented by London based law firm, Leigh Day, in one of the largest environmental legal cases in history following two massive oil spills in 2008 from pipelines operated by oil giant, Shell.
The statement stated that Leigh Day has spent three years gathering witnesses statements and verifying its list of clients on the ground, in Nigeria, to fight the case against Shell in the UK courts.
In August 2014, Leigh Day learned that SPDC had entered into a settlement with CW Law, English Solicitors, who claimed to represent 7,400 of the villagers.
Leigh Day visited Bodo and spoke to the Chairman of the Council of Chiefs and Elders in Bodo, the Chiefs of the Council and the Village Heads of the 35 villages that make up Bodo and confirmed that they had not heard of CW Law or the Nigerian lawyers, Egbegi & Co, who claimed to be working with CW Law.
The Technological and Construction Court, part of the High Court, will be asked to implement an injunction to prevent CW Law and Egbegi & Co or anyone representing them to make contact with people in the Bodo Community.
The Solicitors Regulatory Authority has been asked to investigate the practices of CW Law.
It could be recalled that Shell is accused of two leaks from its pipelines in 2008/09, which devastated the environment surrounding the community of Bodo in Gokana Local Government Area, Rivers State, Nigeria.