Competing class actions continue to be in the spotlight in
Australia, where it has been just over 26 years since the class
action regime was introduced.
Whilst the Australian Law Reform Commission (the
ALRC) is currently embarking on an inquiry into litigation
funding and class actions, with its final report due in December
2018, jurisprudence is emerging from the Courts to tackle some of
the same issues being considered by the ALRC on the
commercialisation of law and the oppressive nature of multiple
class actions.
A recent landmark case (which will be welcomed by class
action respondents generally) has resulted in a financial services
company and asset fund manager AMP succeeding in its application to
transfer four separate competing class actions from the Federal
Court of Australia to the Supreme Court of New South Wales, where
one class action was filed. Following the imminent transfer,
the Supreme Court is expected to make a decision on how many of the
class
