Australian plaintiffs’ firms have brought 69 class action lawsuits this fiscal year, topping previous records in Australian courts. This worrying milestone is perhaps a predictable result of the government’s 2022 decision to roll back litigation safeguards, including removing government oversight on third party litigation funding. 

According to Australian outlet The Daily Telegraph, since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s election in 2022, class actions have generated payouts of up to AUS $127 million for law firms and litigation funders. According to another Australian source, News.com, Shine Lawyers – founded by former Labor MP Kerry Shine – has secured AUS $400 million in settlements from class action lawsuits against the Australian federal government since 2022. Two of the cases brought by Shine alleged the Department of Defense allowed long lasting chemicals, referred to as PFAS, to contaminate local communities. These cases were settled in 2023 and resulted in payments to Shine Lawyers of at least AUS $20 million. And as News.com reported, since 2022, Shine’s total fees collected across four class actions brought against the Australian federal government amount to more than AUS $50 million.  

The reversal on litigation safeguards has also paved the way for big paydays for litigation funders: The Daily Telegraph reported that one funder, Litigation Lending Services, pocketed almost AUS $46.5 million in fees in two cases against the Australian Northern Territory government. Or, to put it another way, Litigation Lending Services collected AUS $46.5 million in taxpayer money from those cases. 

These figures show that Australian plaintiffs’ firms and litigation funders have no problem lining their pockets at the expense of the Australian public, and the rollback of safeguards has made it easy for them. Legal reform is urgently needed to save taxpayers from subsidizing litigation windfalls.