Following our previous blog article on the facts and myths surrounding class actions in Australia (you can catch up and read it here), in this second part of the two-part blog series, we discuss the implications of the growth of shareholder class actions for the local D&O market in a Q&A style. Q: Which type of class action is the most prevalent and poses the most risk? A:  Although we have seen the class…

With the two Law Reform Commission inquiries into class actions and litigation funders, the highly publicised class actions such as GetSwift, and the growing presence of litigation funders in Australia, it’s almost impossible to avoid the discussions about Australia’s class action landscape – And you can bet that the spotlight on class actions will only grow brighter over the coming months. In this two-part blog series, we: (1) provide a Q&A to separate the facts…

The Full Court of the Federal Court in the last couple of weeks considered a question that by some has been considered a “sleeper issue” which had not previously received judicial attention. The question was whether a final adjudication clause in a conduct exclusion prevents Underwriters from relying on their statutory right to avoid a policy for fraudulent non-disclosure. If the answer was “yes” Underwriters would be required to advance defence costs until a finding…

Global litigation funder IMF Bentham Ltd (IMF) has launched a representative complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) seeking, amongst other things, financial compensation for alleged breaches of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) by Facebook Inc (Facebook). The action relates to unauthorised access to over 87 million Facebook users’ data by political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica. The class action has the potential to be formed by over 300,000 Australian class members who…

Does your company or organisation (or any of its subsidiaries) monitor, track or target EU data subjects in the context of offering goods or services to them? If the answer is yes, your organisation needs to ensure it is ready to comply with the requirements of the GDPR. What is the GDPR? The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) commences operation today, 25 May 2018. The GDPR will operate to regulate the processing of…

  Although cyber insurance is seen as one of the biggest opportunities in insurance and reinsurance right now, the risks to insurers and insureds could be equally large. One significant threat is ‘cyber risk aggregation’. What is ‘cyber risk aggregation’? Risk aggregation in the insurance industry refers to multiple claims being generated by the same or a related event (such as the large number of claims that might follow a natural disaster). In the same…