Omni Bridgeway has welcomed the Parliamentary inquiry into litigation funding and class actions that is currently underway in Australia. It provides an opportunity to improve the Australian class action system. However, opponents of litigation funding and class actions are using the inquiry to spread misinformation, in particular about returns generated by funders on successful actions. We set out some facts.
VCs and startups often view litigation as a cost that dilutes a company’s capital, but by working with a funder like Omni Bridgeway, companies can develop a strategy to turn their meritorious legal claims into profitable assets.
In this podcast, Omni Bridgeway Investment Manager and arbitration specialist, Nathan Landis, and Nick Gallus, Special Counsel with law firm Lipman Karas, discuss a range of issues relating to investment treaties between states and other entities, including the role of investment treaty arbitration to resolve any disputes that arise.
Every good law student, and indeed litigation funder, knows that it is a maxim of English law that if there is a conflict between the common law and equity, equity will prevail. The judicial approach to litigation funding has largely been shaped by the motivations of those parties who either have funded cases or have been the beneficiaries of such funding.
The Parliamentary inquiry into litigation funding and class actions announced earlier this year seeks to ensure fair and equitable outcomes for claimants and group members. As a pioneer of the industry and largest funder in Australia, Omni Bridgeway fully supports these aims. Part of our business is to provide finance and access to justice to claimants and group members in class actions who lack the resources to pursue complex and costly disputes.
A pair of recent legal developments involving the United Arab Emirates should significantly enhance the ability of parties seeking to enforce judgments from this important Middle Eastern business hub.
The claimants in the ‘Alucobond’ cladding class action had a significant victory in court last week. The claimants, which include the bodies corporate of residential apartment buildings plus local councils, are bringing the product liability class action against the manufacturers of ‘Alucobond’ PE core cladding products, being the German company, 3A Composites GmbH and the Australian company, Halifax Vogel Group Pty Ltd. The action has been brought in the Federal Court of Australia under consumer protection laws.
Omni Bridgeway is funding a talented interdisciplinary artist and her design studio to gain a declaration of copyright ownership in Singapore in respect of high quality photographs they produced of a number of luxury hotels and, through proceedings in the US, seek damages for their extensive infringement on a variety of third party commercial websites over the last decade.
Our client, an infrastructure construction company, concluded an agreement with an African state (via its Ministry for Works) to rehabilitate a roadway between two major cities.
We funded a US$8.75 million claim by a major Japanese trading house, who found themselves in a dispute with Mexican steel company AHMSA (Altos Hornos de Mexico S.A) after AHMSA entered administration and failed to pay for Roll Grinding equipment.
Having exhausted all avenues to enforce a favorable Award and recover monies owed by a parastatal of the Republic of Uzbekistan an exasperated Turkish construction company turned to Omni Bridgeway to devise and execute a recovery plan.
Our clients invested in the development of an oil pipeline in a Eurasian State. Following a dispute between them and the State, they sought arbitration in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and were awarded two Awards totaling US$100 million to be paid by the State.
We are funding a large public pension fund in an opt-out securities litigation, pending in Quebec, regarding alleged price gouging and fictitious accounting.
