Submission to the Litigation Funding and Regulation of the Class Action Industry Inquiry

27/08/2020

The New South Wales Bar Association has made a submission to the Inquiry by the Federal Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services into litigation funding and regulation of the class action industry.

The submission, prepared by the Association’s Costs and Fees Committee, considered the impact and ethical implications of contingency fees, common fund orders and adverse consequences of unilateral reforms.

The Association recommended that:

a. contingency fees should not, as a matter of principle, be permitted in Australia and the existing prohibitions in Australia’s nine jurisdictions should remain; and

b. the Joint Committee should give consideration to and advocate for nationally consistent regulation and supervision of class actions, the litigation funding industry, the remuneration of lawyers for professional work as officers of the court (including disclosure and charging of legal costs) and lawyers’ professional standards in conducting class actions.

The submission is available here.