The Russian Aircraft Litigation – Operator Policy Claims, Re

In complex multi-party litigation, decisions on sampling claims or trying preliminary issues may properly be deferred where the pleadings remain incomplete and related litigation may materially inform the appropriate trial structure. The court should encourage an economical and focused trial, but should not assume that sampling will be feasible before the issues and evidential landscape are sufficiently defined. Trial dates and case-management hearings should be fixed having regard to the likely availability of relevant judgments and the costs of additional hearings.

This was a case management conference in large-scale litigation concerning Russian operator-policy claims. The court was asked to fix the trial and to order that it proceed on sampled claims, or alternatively on preliminary issues or a combination of preliminary issues and sample claims.

Most parties proposed a trial in Michaelmas term 2026 lasting approximately eight to ten weeks. Some parties proposed an earlier Easter 2026 trial. The court also considered whether an additional staging-post hearing should take place in April 2025 before a further case management conference.

1. Trial date. The trial was fixed for Michaelmas term 2026 rather than earlier in 2026.
2. Sampling and preliminary issues. It was premature to order sampling or determine preliminary issues. The pleadings process had not been completed, and the judgment in the ongoing LP claims trial was unlikely to be available until early 2025. The parties were therefore encouraged to develop proposals, after completion of pleadings and with the benefit of that judgment, addressing whether the trial should concern all claims, preliminary issues, sample claims, or a combination.
3. Economical conduct. It was in principle desirable for the trial to be as focused and economical as possible. That did not justify assuming that all claims could be avoided. If a representative or issue-based approach proved impossible, the court might have to try all the operator-policy claims.
4. Further case management. No April 2025 staging-post hearing was ordered. The next case management conference was directed to take place in early June 2025, with the parties to endeavour to agree proposals by approximately three weeks beforehand.