Many cases are built
to succeed in law.
Not necessarily in reality.
Participation doesn’t fail at judgment. It fails before the case even begins.
Case design decides participation long before a claimant ever sees the claim. This clause sets out where that risk sits — and how CF1 removes it.
Participation is assumed
Collective actions are designed around legal structure — merits, funding, filing strategy.
Participation is treated as something that will follow. It rarely does.
Every case carries a participation gap: the distance between the book the case is built on and the book that actually completes. It is invisible at filing — and expensive at validation.
Assumed participation is the largest unpriced risk in the case.
What the courts are now seeing
Courts are no longer treating participation as a secondary issue. They are asking:
- Q–01
- Who will actually take part?
- Q–02
- How will they complete?
- Q–03
- What will they receive?
“The Tribunal is not satisfied that the claim… is suitable for a Collective Proceedings Order…”
“A properly reasoned and researched estimate of likely take-up… ideally supported by empirical research based on class members themselves.”
Where case design breaks down
The same design flaws recur across jurisdictions and case types:
Assumed participation rates
Take-up figures with no behavioural evidence behind them.
No behavioural validation
The model is never tested against real claimants.
Awareness mistaken for engagement
Reach is reported; completion is what the case needs.
No completion pathway
Claimants start a journey that was never designed to finish.
Fragmented data capture
What is collected can’t support validation or distribution.
Misalignment with filing requirements
The book that exists is not the book the filing assumes.
Participation is a system outcome
If the system is not designed for who will take part, how they will complete and what they will receive — participation will underperform. No matter how strong the case is.
The case design layer
CF1 introduces participation into the case before it is locked in:
- Real-world behaviour testing
- Participation modelling
- Intake journey design
- Data alignment with filing requirements
Each is built on the four CF1 pillars:
- Plate I
- Understanding — instant comprehension, before confusion creates drop-off
- Plate II
- Trust — participation is a risk decision, not just a rational one
- Plate III
- Completion — friction removed across the whole journey
- Plate IV
- Distribution — reaching people where they already are
Participation becomes a designed input — not a hoped-for output.
Built for the parties who carry the risk
Law firms
Strengthening case viability at the point of design — before certification tests it.
Foundations (Stichtings)
Ensuring the structure supports claimant engagement at scale, across jurisdictions.
Funders
Aligning participation with return assumptions — and evidencing it.
By the time a case is filed
The window for design has already closed:
The structure is fixed
The budget is committed
The expectations are set
You’re no longer designing the case. You’re managing the outcome.
Test your case
before it goes live.
Participation is not a variable you fix later. It is a system you design at the start.