Civil Law part.2 Flashcards
What are the 3 features of class actions
-Seven or more people claiming against the same defendant
- claim must be in respect of the same or similar circumstance
-must give rise to a common issue of law meaning the same issue are determined by the court for all claims
What is the roles of the lead plaintiff
-Assuming the risk and cost of litigation on behalf of entire group
-Ensuring claim represents group members, not only pursue ow benefits
-provide instructions of their lawyers regarding conduct of claim and making decisions regarding to settlement
-own name to be filed on case
Where can class actions occur
Supreme Court (trial division) and the federal court
What are 3 examples of the types of class actions
-Workplace accidients
-Medical malpractice
-Financial malpractice
4 strengths of class actions
-Litigation funders to enable more class actions to occur due to an otherwise lack of funds to raise participation
-class actions result in a lower cost for defendants, not have to disbursement costs or legal costs for group members and lowers costs for defendant
-supported by experienced lawyers due to being in Supreme Court
-more efficient as court dealing with no. of claims to save time and court resources
4 weaknesses of class actions
-lead plaintiff has to assume the risk and costs of litigation for the entire group
-extremely cost costly requiring a 3rd party to fund, which without funding will not commence
-the share given to each plaintiff after the costs may be minimal especially after large portion of damages going to litigation funders
-If litigation funding doesn’t occur then the lead plaintiff may be unwilling to bear the costs
Define CAV
A statutory body, this means that it was established as a result of Victorian Parliament passing the legislation:
Australian Consumer and Fair Trading Act (Vic) 2012
What are 3 purposes of CAV
-Enforce compliance with consumer law
-provide accessible dispute resolution services
-Advise the Vic government on consumer legislation eg. sales of goods
-provide consumers and tenants, landlords and traders with dispute resolution processes
What are 3 area of civil disputes that are in the CAV jurisdiction
-Products and services
-Housing- Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (vic)
-Cars
Must be a registered business to file a complaint with CAV
What are 4 ways in which CAV is appropriate
-If the dispute falls into the CAV jurisdiction
-Parties wish to avoid the costs and delays associated with the other dispute resolution methods and VCAT
-parties are willing to comply with the decided agreement at the end of conciliation
-parties have engaged in self-help methods
What are 4 ways that CAV is not appropriate
-The dispute doesn’t fall into the CAV jurisdiction
-The dispute is a class action
-parties haven’t engaged in self-help methods before filing a complaint
-parties want a legally binding resolution
What are 3 weaknesses of CAV
-CAV is limited to the consumer meaning that it has no power to aid another type of party
-CAV doesn’t have the power to enforce the resolutions that were agrees with during the conciliation as they are not legally binding
-not for large and complex cases as they will have difficult legal questions and several parties
What are 3 strengths of CAV
-Quick and relatively efficient so it can be resolved without the stress and delays associated with going to trial
-CAV is free
-role of the conciliator is to provide the parties with the same opportunities
-CAV conciliation is conducted in private bus promoting access to parties that don’t want a public trial
Describe 3 main divisions of VCAT with 2 examples each
-Residential Tenancies division: residential tenancies list
-Civil divisions:
building and property list
owners corporation list
-human rights division
guardianship list
human right list
What are the names of the parties involved in VCAT
The applicant and the respondent