As Victoria looks set to pass legislation allowing law firms to cut litigation funders out of class action work, and the High Court increases the risks of financing group proceedings, funders operating in Australia have been forced to think on their feet to adapt to the ever-changing regime. Australia’s largest litigation funder IMF Bentham is no exception, CEO Andrew Saker told Lawyerly.
A settlement has been reached in three class action against the Commonwealth of Australia over the use of allegedly toxic firefighting foam at government military bases.
Dam operator Seqwater will appeal its loss in a long-running class action over the 2011 Queensland floods that destroyed over 2,000 homes, a move derided by the lawyer for the flood victims, who called for “an end to the injustice” her clients have suffered.
The State of Queensland will not appeal a ruling that found it, as well as the operators of two Queensland dams, were negligent in the 2011 floods in the Southeast region of the state that left over 2,000 homes destroyed.
Two months after rejecting the deal because the litigation funder’s cut appeared excessive, a judge has approved a $42 million class action settlement with Murray Goulburn while the funder keeps up the fight over its commission.
A judge has given the green light to a $1.5 million settlement in a long-running class action against ANZ alleging it slapped customers with illegal fees, with group members expected to get no more than $100 and potentially walking away with “substantially less” than this.
A judge has rejected a proposal to jointly hear argument for approval of settlements in two class actions against milk supplier Murray Goulburn, saying the issues in one case — led by the legal team under scrutiny for alleged professional misconduct in a separate class action — could be more complicated.
Funder IMF Bentham expects to bring in up to $130 million in income for backing the Queensland floods class action, after a judge ruled last week that the operator of two dams as well as the state government were responsible for the severity of the flooding that hit Southeast Queensland in 2011.
Eight years after floods in Southeast Queensland destroyed more than 2,000 homes, a judge will deliver his ruling in two class actions seeking a record $1 billion in damages, and the decision could well come down to which of two conflicting flood modeling reports the judge sides with.
Whether judges can alter the terms of litigation funding agreements in class actions is a question that will remain unsettled for now, after litigation funder IMF Bentham chose to sidestep a lengthy, costly and risky challenge to the reach of the court’s powers.