Shareholder Class Action Financing - the Future of Law Reform

The ALRC, Productivity Commission and Paterson Inquiries into shareholder class action law reform

[Extract] The financing of shareholder class actions has created substantial media interest. Media reporting can have a negative feedback loop acquiring influential global momentum of its own whereas legal scholarship, even when reported, does not. Legal scholarship is not replete with empirical analysis so in the present debate, such analysis should be heeded. Reforms to date illustrate how the confluence of class action law and managed investment scheme (MIS) law is problematic and unresolved. Some proposed reforms are politically contested. Litigation funding is used to increase access to justice for those otherwise unable to prosecute a claim to uncover and remedy incompetence, reckless or egregious behaviour. It can also be misused, perhaps as a strategic tool. Australian present and proposed practice deviates from preferred practices in other jurisdictions emulating divergences seen in comparative fiduciary and best interest law which generate additional director risk where there are cross-border investments.