A Class Half Full: Recent Episodes
Douglas Campbell
This episode dives more fully into the murky waters of post-Brewster common fund orders and looks at the alternative of an expense sharing order.
Up until late 2019 common fund orders had developed as a convenient way for a litigation funder could determine and lock-in the likely return on any funding provided. They spread legal costs and funding commission in a pro-rata way across all class members. However things changed in late 2019 with the High Court's decision in Brewster. This episode explores how common fund orders developed and what changed with Brewster.
In this episode of A Class Half Full, Douglas Campbell speaks with Justin McDonnell, senior consultant at King & Wood Mallesons, who reflects on his experience acting for Defendants in a number of high profile class actions including the Brisbane Floods class action and his thoughts on where class actions may be heading.
Everybody hates a class action where the only beneficiaries are the lawyers. In this episode, Douglas discusses class action settlements that only benefit the lawyers involved, and there is nothing left over for the claimants.
Douglas discusses the implications for class actions following the decision of Justice Lee in the ongoing Matheson Property Group matter to make an order for discovery of a party's insurance policies.
Today, Blair Hall interviews Jerry Tucker, an associate at Bottoms English Lawyers in Cairns. Ms Tucker essentially ran Australia's largest class action - the Stolen Wages class action - and in this episode explains what it was like to be involved in a case of that scale.
In this episode, Douglas Campbell discusses the role of court-appointed contradictors in the class action process. Contradictors are typically barristers who provide their opinion on whether or not a proposed settlement is fair and reasonable in the circumstances.
In this episode, Douglas Campbell QC discusses various problems with opt-out notices, such as opting out after the time limit has elapsed, and who should get the notice in the first place.
In the second episode of A Class Half Full podcast, Douglas Campbell QC discusses the use of the opt-out system in Australia. How did it come about and what are its weakness.
'A Class Half Full' is a new legal podcast by Douglas Campbell QC and Blair Hall, tackling the class action system in Australia.
This episode is an introduction to the podcast as a whole, as well as thoughts about the underlying concept behind class actions in Australia - particularly that they can be commenced without the consent or even knowledge of those people who may be affected by any decision. Because there is the potential of exploitation of group members legislation and particularly the courts have taken their own measures to group members from exploitations. This episode looks at why the system operates as it does and begins to look at the type of protection that legislation and the court put in place to protect group members. Hence the title Exploitation of Class Members.