Australia – A New Frontier for Plaintiffs?

With the increasing barriers to successfully prosecuting a securities fraud case in the United States, including the jurisdictional limitations caused by the Morrison decision, institutional investors are sometimes now looking to other jurisdictions to sometime recover their losses. One such jurisdiction is Australia.

While we are not Australian attorneys, our observations from dealing with many Australian cases are as follows:

• Plaintiffs' attorneys in Australia frequently announce new investigations and/or "class actions" relating to what they see as fraudulent conduct. "Class Actions" or "Representative Proceedings" in Australia differ from U.S. class actions in that one usually has to "opt in" to be assured of participating in the settlement. (There are exceptions – a few actions are filed as "open" class actions which cover all investors. Others – initially filed as "closed" class actions sometimes are opened to all investors during the settlement process,