The number of funded class actions in Australia has dipped in the two years since contingency fees were introduced in Victoria, but litigation funders are still important players in group proceedings, a new report shows.
The New South Wales Supreme Court has declined in popularity as a venue for class action litigation since contingency fees were introduced in Victoria, according to a new report.
The Federal Court has dialled back a controversial rule change restricting public access to new cases, but the latest procedure is a laughable attempt to retreat from the attack on open justice and should make even litigants nervous.
The question of power to make a common fund order at the end of a class action was no longer a hypothetical one and it was time to send the issue to the Full Federal Court. That’s what the 7-Eleven class action judge was told 15 months ago but he failed to heed the advice, resulting in a court deeply divided and funders clamouring for reform.
A landmark Federal Court class action against private health insurer Medibank will be a test case for when privacy claims can sidestep the regulatory path, and whether group members can prove they suffered loss from exposure of their data.
A recent ruling cutting the contingency fee sought by a plaintiff law firm shows competition to run class actions will drive down the percentage payout courts are willing to permit. And as more firms enter the market for a slice of the returns, the downward pressure on profits will only build.
A judge’s recent ruling throwing out an expert report in a trade secrets case because the law firm briefing the expert had failed to disclose its involvement in preparing the evidence is a stark reminder to solicitors their paramount duty is to the court, not to their client.
If evidence were needed that courts are not rubber stamping class action settlements, the scrutiny of multi-million dollar agreements in 2021 is proof positive that judicial oversight of representative proceedings is robust.
More than 18 months after a split emerged among the courts, the Full Federal Court will weigh in on whether judges have power to shut out unregistered group members from a class action. But given the breadth of the question for the appeals court, the issue is unlikely to be resolved there.
A ruling this week that rejected the first application for a group costs order in a class action because the applicants were better off with their existing no win, no fee arrangement was the right decision given the limits of the legislation, experts say.