A class action against Westpac over allegedly excessive insurance premiums that was at the centre of a successful High Court challenge to common fund orders may back out of funding the case in the wake of the landmark ruling.
The head of Australia’s largest unlisted insurance broker, Coverforce, may face a future damages claim for misleading or deceptive conduct if a recent acquisition of former Suncorp unit Resilium is not reversed, a court has found.
Two rulings Friday keeping alive the common fund order are a ringing endorsement by the courts of the important role that litigation funders play in class actions, experts say, and have paved the way for more funded post-Hayne consumer litigation against banks and other financial services firms this year.
Common fund orders in class actions are legal and not unconstitutional, six judges found Friday after a history-making joint sitting of two appeals courts.
Common fund orders are the completion of the notion of class actions envisaged when the regime was introduced 27 years ago, a joint-sitting of two appeals courts was told on the second and last day of a landmark challenge to what has become an oft-used case management tool by trial judges.
Litigation funder Regency Funding has sought leave to intervene as a major player in one of two challenges to the courts’ powers to issue common fund orders in class actions, but it might have a fight on its hands.
A class action against Westpac over allegedly excessive insurance premiums has been put on ice after funder JustKapital filed an application to stay the case in the wake of the bank’s appeal challenging the court’s power to make a common fund order.
The litigation funder at the centre of a challenge by Westpac to the Federal Court’s power to make common fund orders faced a fiery judge in a tense exchange Friday, after it revealed it was weighing a bid to pause a class action against the bank until after the appeal.
The funders of two class actions against a trustee of failed investment groups LKM Capital and GR Finance have agreed to cut their commission by 15 percentage points.
Litigation funder JustKapital went on the attack in court on Wednesday, saying Westpac’s objections to the terms of a proposed funding order in a class action against the bank were dangerously suspect.