The Court's supervisory role over legal costs charged to class members extends to the settlement approval process, even where the settlement does not seek approval of costs and the costs have already been paid. Where there is a conflict of interests in relation to costs, information asymmetry, and evidence that important legal work was not performed, the applicants' solicitors must put on material to satisfy the Court as to the reasonableness of costs. Class members in representative proceedings are unlikely to be precluded by Anshun estoppel or abuse of process from raising individual or unique claims in subsequent proceedings where those claims could not reasonably have been raised within the class action. Applicants' solicitors in class actions are obliged to inform class members of funding difficulties and gaps in case preparation that may affect prospects of success.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 112 later cases that cite this judgment.
6 of the 112 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.