Catchwords:

Practice and procedure – Representative action – Orders – Where s 33ZF of Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth) and s 183 of Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) provide that in representative proceeding court may make any order court thinks appropriate or necessary to ensure justice is done in proceeding – Where representative proceedings commenced in Federal Court of Australia and Supreme Court of New South Wales – Where proceedings funded by litigation funders – Where litigation funders entered into litigation funding agreements with small number of group members – Where representative parties in each proceeding applied for common fund order – Whether s 33ZF of Federal Court of Australia Act and s 183 of Civil Procedure Act empower Federal Court of Australia and Supreme Court of New South Wales to make common fund order.

Words and phrases – “access to justice”, “appropriate or necessary to ensure that justice is done in the proceeding”, “award of damages”, “book building”, “common fund”, “common fund order”, “distribution of moneys recovered”, “equitable sharing of costs”, “fair and reasonable to all group members”, “free riding”, “funding commission”, “funding equalisation order”, “interests of justice”, “litigation funding”, “representative proceeding”, “risk”, “unfunded group members”.