I am constantly seeing paragraphs in defences saying something to the effect of: "The defendant does not plead to paragraph [X] of the statement of claim because it makes no allegation against the defendant." There are two problems with that. The first is that you are probably wrong. Every paragraph in the statement of claim makes an allegation against the defendant. Even if you are one of multiple defendants and the paragraph seems to concern one of the other defendants, you

In Abbott v Zoetis Australia Pty Ltd (No 2) [2019] FCA 462, a decision handed down last week by Lee J regarding an application for security for costs in a mass-tort class action being conducted on a "no win no fee" basis, his Honour gave an important endorsement to class actions being "self-funded"—that is, funded by the group members. Abbott relates to a vaccine used in horses to treat the Hendra virus. The applicant and group members are owners of horses which are alleged t

There was an interesting decision handed down by Garling J in the NSW Supreme Court last week in Fernandez & Anor v State of New South Wales & Ors [2019] NSWSC 255, saying that the plaintiff in a class action does not need to have a claim against all defendants. The case concerns a claim made against the State of NSW and various local health districts on behalf of people who have been made to guarantee a patient's debt where the patient was not eligible for Medicare benefits.

In UBS AG v Tyne [2018] HCA 45, a 4-3 decision of the High Court of Australia has made it harder for litigants to bring a claim that could have been determined in an earlier proceeding, even if that claim had never been determined on the merits. The decision rested on the interpretation of the doctrine of the abuse of the court's process, as well as the overarching purpose of case management in provisions such as s 56 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) and s 37M of the Fed