Feature
Changes to class actions and litigation funding: Good news for insurers?
Andrew Horne and Nick Frith, Minter Ellison Rudd Watts
C
lass actions, which under our current rules, are representative actions, are now firmly part of the New Zealand legal landscape. They are also of significant interest to insurers, both in terms of their own potential exposure (e.g. Ross v Southern Response) and perhaps more importantly, from a liability insurance perspective (e.g. D&O and product liability claims). We predict that 2021 will see the courts continuing to focus on managing class actions cautiously
14
June 2021
while the Law Commission presses ahead with its recommendations for a statutory class action regime, having come to a preliminary view that New Zealand should develop one, and for the potential regulation of litigation funders, which are viewed as necessary for the majority of class actions. Law Commission Issues Paper
The Law Commission spent 2020 progressing its Class Actions and Litigation Funding project. Having initiated conversations
with key stakeholders, the Law Commission decided on a review from first principles, primarily because: It is evident from [the Law Commission’s] initial conversations and research that there is no broad consensus on the desirability of a class actions regime or litigation funding, nor on the extent to which, or how, they should be regulated. The Law Commission’s work culminated in a 376-page Issues
