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What the class actions space could look like for the rest of 2024
As the second half of 2024 unfolds, a partner at a major law firm shares the anticipated trends and developments that could alter the class action space in the remaining months of this year.
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, shared valuable insights into the anticipated trajectory of the class action landscape for the remainder of the year. He also addressed how teams can prepare and equip their staff to handle these developments.
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In the same episode, he 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.
Tolliday anticipates that the class action space will continue to handle a wide array of lawsuits filed in different sectors.
“Looking ahead for the balance of the year, I think what we expect to see is a continuation of a very diverse range of class actions being filed across sectors,” he said.
He also detailed that as competition among plaintiff law firms intensifies, he anticipates that several significant judgments will be poised in the coming months that significantly impact the future of class actions within the country.
“As competition heats up with a large number of plaintiff law firms operating in Australia, there are likely to be a number of key judgments that are delivered in the second half of the year that will have an impact on the class action landscape,” he said.
“There’s a special leave application before the High Court in a proceeding, which is a really significant issue that practitioners across the class action landscape are monitoring carefully.”
He further noted: “Some recent developments with solicitor’s common fund orders and clarity on the assessment of group cost orders are issues that are likely to obtain some further clarity over the balance of the year.”
Tolliday has indicated that another topic of interest he highlights for the remainder of the year is the “possible reform to the Privacy Act”. Should these revisions come into effect, he has emphasised that they are “likely to trigger some further interest in data breach class actions”.
“There’s a lot to keep an eye on over the balance of the year. And I think if we had this conversation in 12 months time, there would be some very interesting things to discuss,” he said.
In light of these developments and the anticipated changes to the class action space, Tolliday expressed the importance of legal firms being well prepared to navigate the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
Tolliday acknowledges that one of the strategies employed by his firm to ensure that their team can effectively navigate the multifaceted class action space is through carefully “monitoring utilisation levels across the firm”.
To also ensure that no individual is operating at an unsustainable level, Tolliday revealed how “if we have people that are entering the red zone, we do not hesitate in adding lawyers to our teams to ensure that the people are not working at unsustainable levels”.
