The New Zealand law commission has called on the government to implement a class action regime that would allow funders to seek the equivalent of a common fund order to “improve access to justice and efficiency in litigation”.
The head of NSW’s peak legal body has called on the state’s Attorney General to retain a number of COVID-19 measures to improve access to justice.
The federal government said Friday it would consider the implications of an appeals court’s finding that the managed investment scheme structure was unsuited to class actions, a ruling it said was a victory for ordinary Australians and a vindication for Labor.
The ruling by the Full Federal Court that funded class actions are not managed investment schemes marks the end of an ill-considered regime enacted by the Morrison government to rein in class actions, but the debate over regulation of litigation funders is not over yet.
New federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC has been welcomed by the nation’s leading legal bodies on the first day of his second term as the top law officer, as he hinted at plans to establish a national anti-corruption commission.
Fighting a class action that claims the age pension discriminates against Indigenous Australians because of differences in life expectancy, the Commonwealth says the rate of welfare dependency among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders could impact the case.
A litigation funder challenging a decision underpinning recently enacted rules that require class actions to be registered as managed investment schemes told an appeals court Wednesday the decision was plainly wrong and the regime unworkable.
A former manager at the NSW Roads and Maritime Services awarded over $12.2 million in government contracts to two companies owned by his friends, the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption has found.
With the Australian Labor Party to form government after Saturday’s election defeat for the Coalition, class action lawyers are looking forward to reforms that expand access to justice, enshrine the court’s power to supervise costs and wind back Morrison-era legislation.
Availability of phone voting for the federal election has been extended for people isolating with COVID-19, following threatened legal action by high profile teal independent Monique Ryan.