Submission to Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services Inquiry into Litigation Funding and the Regulation of the Class Action Industry

In this submission PIAC makes the following two observations related to the type and level of regulation that should apply to Australia’s class action and litigation funding systems:

1. The availability of third party litigation funding allows PIAC and others to conduct public interest litigation on behalf of clients who would not otherwise be able to proceed because of financial risk; and

2. Current class action regimes in most Australian jurisdictions, and the litigation funding arrangements that support those class actions, can provide access to justice for individual class members.

Any proposals for reform of regulation of litigation funding or class action regimes should take account of these benefits to prospective plaintiffs and to the importance of litigation funding to public interest litigation.