Clashing Classes Down Under-Evaluating Australia‘s Competing Class Actions Through Empirical and Comparative Perspectives
2012 27 Connecticut Journal of International Law, pp. 205-278
74 Pages Posted: 8 Jun 2012 Last revised: 19 Jun 2012
Date Written: September 1, 2011
Abstract
Australia’s three class action regimes do not provide any guidance with respect to the appropriate approach to adopt when different law firms file separate class actions with respect to the same legal disputes. The potentially adverse effects of competing class actions and the most appropriate strategies for dealing with them have been among the most important and controversial issues in Australia’s civil justice landscape over the last few years. The aim of this article is to employ the findings of the first empirical study of the class action regimes that operate in the Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of Victoria to explore Australia’s experience with competing class actions, including the legal disputes and circumstances that have resulted in competing class actions and the steps (if any) that were taken – by the court and/or the lawyers in question – to deal with the problems that may be caused by competing legal representation. These findings will be compared with the Canadian experience with competing class actions. Numerous references to the American competing class actions landscape will also be made.
Keywords: competing class actions, Australia, Canada, United States, overlapping classes, non-overlapping classes, class actions by opt out claimants, national class actions, multijurisdictional class actions, reform, litigation funders
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