Australian Law Reform Commission releases key proposals for class action reform

Following a request by the Commonwealth Attorney General in December 2017 to consider whether and to what extent class actions and litigation funders should be subject to Commonwealth regulation, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has recently published its discussion paper, and has invited public submissions on an initial set of proposals.

The ALRC's discussion paper does exactly what it needs to do – provoke discussion about particular issues in the direction and practice of class actions in Australia. But that is only the first step – and there is detail that needs to be carefully worked out.

In this article, we look at four of the key proposals the ALRC has set out in the paper, and consider how class action reform might affect plaintiffs, defendants and litigation funders.