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11 September 2019
Class Actions in Australia: Emerging Trends
There have been a range of developments in the class actions landscape over the past year. The Australian Law Reform Commission completed its review of class action proceedings and third party litigation funding, an appeal is pending in the High Court of Australia on common fund orders and the...
07 August 2019
Policyholder successfully appeals refusal to apply one deductible to multiple claims in Class Action
In good news for policyholders defending class actions, the NSW Court of Appeal has ruled that multiple claims in a class action against Bank of Queensland over a “Ponzi scheme” should be treated as a single claim under the Civil Liability Policy’s aggregation clause, meaning that only one...
08 March 2019
Common fund orders upheld following historic joint sitting
Less than a month after an historic joint sitting of the Full Federal Court of Australia and NSW Court of Appeal, decisions have been handed down by both Courts, confirming the validity of ‘common fund orders’ in class action proceedings. 1
25 February 2019
The ALRC’s final report on class action proceedings and third-party litigation funders
On 24 January 2019, the Commonwealth Attorney-General tabled in Parliament the Australian Law Reform Commission ( ALRC )’s final report on class action reform: Integrity, Fairness and Efficiency—An Inquiry into Class Action Proceedings and Third-Party Litigation Funders ( Report ).
03 December 2018
Casual employment and double dipping continues to take centre stage
We discussed in our previous Legal Briefing 1 the flurry of recent activity with plaintiff-focussed litigation funders and law firms instituting and threatening to commence class action claims in the mining, direct sales and marketing, and labour hire sectors over the alleged underpayment of...
30 October 2018
Employment class actions threaten to disrupt employers and unions alike
Over the past decade at least, many businesses have become alert to the burgeoning trend of class action law suits in Australia. Class actions, for example, have been commonly used to litigate shareholder actions and product liability claims. But until recently, they have been rarely used in the...
10 September 2018
Class Action Assault on UK PLCs for Acts of Subsidiaries
A recent trio of decisions 1 from the Court of Appeal of England and Wales has provided insight into the circumstances in which an English-domiciled company may be held liable in negligence to individuals affected by the acts of its overseas subsidiaries.
11 July 2018
How can in-house lawyers tackle the increasing threat of class actions in the English Courts?
Class actions represent an increasing area of risk for UK corporates, with increasing numbers of high-profile and highvalue group claims being brought, or threatened to be brought, in the English courts. The principal mechanism used to litigate these claims differs from the ‘opt-out’ class action...
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12 September 2019
ACCC issues guidance on competition risks in IP transactions: Beware the inadvertent cartel
The ACCC has issued final Guidelines on how Australia’s competition laws will apply to intellectual property assignments and licences following the repeal of the ‘IP exemption’ from prohibitions on anti-competitive conduct which was contained in subsection 51(3) of the Competition and Consumer Act...
11 September 2019
Class Actions in Australia: Emerging Trends
There have been a range of developments in the class actions landscape over the past year. The Australian Law Reform Commission completed its review of class action proceedings and third party litigation funding, an appeal is pending in the High Court of Australia on common fund orders and the...
10 September 2019
Using Decision Analysis to evaluate a settlement offer
Using Decision Analysis to evaluate a settlement offer The HSF Decision Analysis team brings together highly numerate disputes lawyers to build decision tree models and help clients quantify, visualise and better understand legal risks in their disputes. This service has brought new insights to...
10 September 2019
'Mega-fines' and compensation – how might companies be affected? Developments in Data Protection Law September 2019
In this update, we provide you with a brief summary of two recent developments in relation to sanctions imposed under the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"). Firstly, the Berlin Data Protection Authority ("Berlin DPA") recently announced its willingness to impose multimillion-euro fines...
06 September 2019
Classic cross-border cooperation: joint court hearings in the Halifax insolvency
On 22 August 2019, the Federal Court of Australia ( FCA ) held that it could make a request to the New Zealand High Court ( NZHC ) that there be a joint hearing of those courts in respect of applications relating to the pooling of various funds held by companies subject to Australian and New...
06 September 2019
FATF and APG publish long-awaited mutual evaluation report on Hong Kong
Following the Financial Action Task Force ( FATF ) and the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering’s inspection of Hong Kong in October and November 2018, their much anticipated Mutual Evaluation Report ( Report ) on Hong Kong was published on 4 September 2019. Our previous bulletin on 25 June 2019...
05 September 2019
Industry engagement essential to success of ‘gateway’ model for energy sector CDR
The ACCC’s selection of a ‘gateway’ model as the preferred data access model for implementation of the Consumer Data Right ( CDR ) in the energy sector is anticipated to align to the preferences of incumbent energy sector participants, but may not fully meet the expectations of potential new market...
04 September 2019
Maximising Privilege Protection under US and English Law
When learning of a potential criminal or regulatory issue – whether through receipt of an information request from the authorities or through an internal mechanism – a firm will usually conduct an internal investigation, whose purpose is to understand the scope of the issue, remediate the problem...
03 September 2019
Decision Analysis
The Decision Analysis team at Herbert Smith Freehills, led by Alex Oddy and Donny Surtani, have developed processes and tools to help evaluate risk in dispute situations and support clients in their decision-making. The team uses specialist software to analyse and visualise the risks inherent in a...
02 September 2019
One Step Forward for Battery-powered Electric Vehicles in Indonesia
On 8 August 2019, Indonesia’s President signed the country’s first regulation on electric vehicles – Presidential Regulation No. 55 of 2019 on the Acceleration Program for Battery-powered Electric Vehicles for Road Transportation (“ PR 55/2019 ”). PR 55/2019 reflects the government’s twin ambitions...
