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.
In a significant victory for litigation funders, the Full Federal Court has found that funded class actions are not managed investment schemes subject to regulatory oversight, gutting the legal basis for reforms enacted by the Morrison government in 2020.
Ernst & Young has settled all claims against it in a shareholder class action alleging the Big Four accounting firm and Pitcher Partners signed off on an overly rosy year-end financial report that failed to disclose risks and impairments associated with the law firm’s disastrous $1.2 billion acquisition of UK insurance claims company Quindell.
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.
Forex Capital Trading liquidators have won an “urgent” bid for orders allowing them to distribute $69.5 million to 8,600 former customers of the derivatives trader which allegedly gave misleading advice on products described as “little more than gambling”.
Two insurers have won an appeal that blocks group members in a class action against sandalwood producer Quintis from receiving a further $11.25 million after a settlement was reached almost two years ago.
A case before the Full Court that will revisit the question of whether class actions are managed investment schemes may not resolve all of the funding controversies that have emerged in a class action against franchise giant Retail Food Group, a court has heard.
Mercedes-Benz will defend ACCC proceedings alleging it exposed consumers to serious injury or death by failing to comply with obligations under a compulsory recall of potentially deadly Takata airbags by arguing the recall was invalid.
The Full Federal Court has appointed a contradictor to “take up the cudgels” against funder Litigation Capital Management, which has challenged a judgment refusing to find that a class action filed against Queensland electricity operators was not a managed investment scheme.