Update: Western Australia’s Class Action Reform Bill

09 November, 2022
By Ante Golem, Jonathan Tong and Libby Plajzer In our Legal Briefing dated 26 August 2022 (Legal Briefing), we reported that the Civil Procedure (Representative Proceedings) Bill 2021 (Bill) was currently before the Legislative Council Western Australia for its second reading speech. On 31 August 2022, the Bill passed through the Legislative Council. Consequently, Western … Read more

Legal briefing: Western Australia’s Class Action Reform Bill

26 August, 2022
By Ante Golem and Libby Plajzer In October 2015, the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia released its Final Report on Representative Proceedings (the Report). The Report made seven recommendations for reform, including that Western Australia enact legislation to create a regime for ‘representative actions’ based on Part IVA of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth) (FCA). Read more

NZ Law Commission recommends Class Action Act

19 July, 2022
By Melissa Gladstone-Joyce, Brock Gunthorpe and Michael Greatrex New Zealand is one step closer to a legislated class action procedure after the recent publication of the New Zealand Law Commission’s (NZLC) final report on Class Actions and Litigation Funding. The report says class actions and litigation funding can make important contributions to improving access to … Read more

Litigation funding as a MIS a “square peg in a round hole”

19 July, 2022
By Elizabeth Poulos Court reverses earlier decision The Full Federal Court has overturned its previous decision in Brookfield Multiplex Ltd v International Litigating Funding Pte Ltd [2009] FCAFC 147; (2009) 180 FCR 11 (Brookfield), finding in 2022 that a relevantly identical litigation funding arrangement to that in Brookfield did not, in fact, have the features … Read more

Class Actions Fireside Podcast Series: EP17: Bracing for a year of change

11 July, 2022
Episode 17: Bracing for a year of change Our expert panel of Jason Betts, Aoife Xuereb, and Melissa Gladstone-Joyce discuss what a new government means for the class action landscape, and revisit their 2022 predictions by sharing key developments on issues such as class closure and the award of contingency fees. Read more

Re-opening of class closure in Federal class actions

16 June, 2022
By Jason Betts, Christine Tran, Aoife Xuereb, Brock Gunthorpe and Maddison Ives In 2020, two decisions of the NSW Court of Appeal created considerable doubt on the availability of class closure orders in class actions filed in the Federal Court: see article here. In February 2022, the Full Court was asked to clarify the position … Read more