Is There Safety in Numbers?

Although we are only a quarter of the way into the year, it already seems that 2006 will be a jubilee year for class actions, particularly in the field of what are commonly termed "securities class actions".

In October 2005, Hugh McLernon, a director of Australia's largest litigation funder, IMF, said in an article in the Australian Financial Review[1] that there were currently six shareholders' class actions on foot in Australia: Sons of Gwalia, Aristocrat, Concept Sports, Ion, Village Life and Media World. Perhaps coincidentally, IMF is funding five of them. However, Mr McLernon could also have mentioned the Harris Scarfe class action on foot in the Federal Court in Adelaide[2] or the class action proceedings which are on foot against the NAB in the US, on behalf of Australian investors, over the NAB's losses flowing from its involvement in HomeSide