The public might not understand very much about class actions but would be likely to join group litigation against a company or their employer, a survey has found.

The poll of 1,000 UK adults by communications business Portland showed that 38% reported they had low awareness of class actions, with just 10% saying they had a very high awareness. There also appeared to be scepticism about the public’s ability to have an impact, with just 30% of respondents saying they had the power to hold companies acting unlawfully to account.

Despite the relative lack of understanding, 71% of people would join a class action against a company or organisation if they were directly affected by wrongdoing. A similar proportion (69%) would join a claim against their employer.

The survey found elements of particular interest to lawyers handling class action: 26% would be discouraged from signing up if they found the process complicated, and more than half of people would be unwilling to spend more than three hours on a class action, including collecting documents and responding to lawyers.

Respondents thought that lawyers and litigation funders would be the most likely beneficiaries of class actions in the UK, with 90% believing that taking more than 10% of damages is unfair. Almost one third (31%) would be less likely to sign up if the funder was taking a large percentage.

Philip Hall, senior partner and head of litigation for Portland, said the ‘explosion’ of media coverage of group litigation in recent years was further proof of their increasing prominence.

‘Class actions were reported on nearly 10 times as often by the UK press in the past 12 months compared to the 12 months previous,’ said Hall. ‘This increase presents a clear opportunity for claimant firms, and a risk to be managed as far as possible for firms specialising in defendant work.’

Maeve Hanna, partner in the litigation and investigations team at Allen & Overy, said enthusiasm may have dampened for class actions following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Lloyd v Google, but other forms of group litigation will still be pursued.