The Court held that a soft class closure order requiring group member registration for mediation/settlement purposes was appropriate at the opt-out notice stage, even though pleadings were not yet closed, discovery was incomplete, and no mediation had been scheduled. [name withheld] applied the factors from [name withheld] v Aristocrat Leisure Limited and the High Court's reasoning in Lendlease v [name withheld], finding that the paramount consideration — whether registration would improve the prospects of achieving a reasonable settlement — was satisfied because the size of the Vaccine Coercion sub-group was otherwise impossible to estimate with any precision, and combining the registration notice with the opt-out notice was more efficient and minimised privacy impacts. The Court rejected the plaintiffs' argument that the proceedings were too early for such an order, holding that the necessary preparatory work (quantum sampling, disclosure, pleading amendments) could proceed in parallel with the registration process.
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