Common Fund Orders: Are They Part Of The Australian Class Action Landscape?

On 26 October 2016, for the first time in Australian legal history, a common fund order was made by the Full Federal Court in the Money Max Int Pty Ltd (as trustee for the Goldie Superannuation Fund) v QBE Insurance Group Ltd (Money Max) case.¹

The decision will certainly be welcomed by funders. It provides the funder in this case with certainty that all of the claimants in the class, rather than only those who have signed up to the funding arrangements with the funder, will be liable to pay the funder a commission out of any proceeds recovered in the litigation, or as a result of settlement. It casts the net much wider in capturing who is liable to pay the funder, regardless of whether they sign up with the funder.