Login
What have we learnt from the class action landscape in 2024 thus far?
Here, a BigLaw partner reflects on the current state of class action litigation in Australia, drawing from detailed observations and findings from the first six months of 2024.
Grace Robbie
Speaking on a recent episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, Alex Tolliday, a partner and co-lead of the class actions practice at BigLaw firm Allens, detailed the firm’s interim report on class action risk, providing an overview of the essential findings and trends that they uncovered during the first six months of 2024.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create a free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
One of the critical observations presented in the report was a significant decline in the number of class actions initiated compared to previous periods.
“What we’ve seen in the first six months of 2024 is a softening in filing rates, which may indicate that class action risk is subsiding to an extent. But we think it’s prudent to maintain a fairly cautious outlook looking forward for a few reasons,” he said.
Despite declining filing rates, Tolliday detailed that the range of claims pursued during the first half of the year remained notably diverse and comprehensive, reflecting a broad spectrum of industry concerns and evolving legal challenges.
“What we’re still seeing is class action plaintiff firms investigating and pursuing a very broad base of claims. Over the first half of the year, we’ve seen consumer claims, investor claims, public interest claims, franchisee claims and employee class action claims,” he said.
Tolliday also highlighted the continued expansion in the Australian class action market, noting a significant increase in both the number and diversity of plaintiff firms.
“We’ve also seen a continuation in the growth of the plaintiff firms who are active in the Australian class action market, which includes some further breakaway firms from established class action practises, and a new foreign entrant as well,” he said.
He also revealed how “the barriers of entry to commence a class action remain low. The threshold requirements that need to be satisfied to commence a class action are easily satisfied”.
Additionally, Tolliday outlined how the continued absence of regulation for litigation funders and the recent permission for plaintiff lawyers to enter into a contingency fee arrangement could drive increased activity within the legal sector.
“There remains a lack of regulation of litigation funders and now the ability for plaintiff lawyers to obtain contingency fee structures in the Supreme Court of Victoria and more recently in the Federal Court. That’s likely to fuel some further activity,” he said.
Tolliday underscored that the most unexpected finding he uncovered in the interim report was the conspicuous absence of shareholder class actions during the first half of 2024.
“One thing that does stand out that we did mention in the report is that there have been no shareholder class actions filed over the first half of this year. And, in fact, when you look at the data, the most recent shareholder class action filing was in early November last year,” he said.
He elaborated on the significance of this development, expressing that shareholder class actions have traditionally been a staple of the Australian class action system.
“Shareholder class actions are part of the furniture in our class action landscape. Not that long ago and for many years, they were the most popular type of class action. And in 2023, while consumer claims dominated the scene and represented 40 per cent of class action filings, shareholder claims came in second, accounting for 20 per cent of filings,” he said.
