Soft class closure orders requiring group member registration as a condition of participating in any pre-trial settlement are appropriate under ss 33ZF and 33ZG of the Supreme Court Act 1986 (Vic) where the orders facilitate meaningful settlement negotiations by crystallising the number and quantum of claims. In mass tort proceedings where group membership is not readily ascertainable from defendants' records, the statistical sampling methodology used to estimate groupwide losses requires a registered population to function, strengthening the case for class closure. The Court required evidence of an adequate notification regime including distribution through industry organisations and newspaper advertisements, and was not satisfied with the initially proposed notification arrangements.
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