Inquiry update

New Inquiry – Funding Litigation Inquiry

On 11 December 2017, the then-Attorney-General of Australia, Senator the Hon George Brandis QC, gave the ALRC Terms of Reference for an inquiry into class action proceedings and third party litigation funding.

The Funding Litigation Inquiry will be led by ALRC President, the Hon. Justice S C Derrington. Initial consultations will begin shortly.

The last time the ALRC was asked to look at class actions and litigation funding was in 1988 and the ALRC produced its report, Grouped Proceedings in the Federal Court. This new Inquiry is therefore a timely review of litigation funding.

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Review of the Family Law System

The Review is on track to release its initial consultation document – an Issues Paper – in March 2018. With the release of the Issues Paper, the ALRC will call for submissions, due by the end of April.

In the meantime, anyone who would like to share with us their recent experience of the Family Law System, outside of the formal submission process, is welcome to do so via the ALRC website. Any experiences shared in this way will be for the ALRC’s use only and will not be published.  However, all material received by the ALRC may be subject to Freedom of Information requests. If your story contains information about a court proceeding, including a proceeding under the Family Law Act 1975, you should carefully consider the terms of any order made by a court in that proceeding relating to the disclosure of information before you submit your story to the ALRC. For example, it is an offence under s 102PK of the Family Law Act 1975 to contravene a suppression order or a non-publication order made under s 102PE of the Family Law Act 1975. Please limit your response to 750 words. 

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Incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

The report for this Inquiry, Pathways to Justice–Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, was delivered to the Attorney-General on 22 December 2017. The Report is under embargo until it is tabled in Parliament. Under the ALRC Act, the Government must table the Report within 15 sitting days. As soon as it is tabled it will be made publically available on the ALRC website. We will notify people via the Inquiry enews as soon as this happens.

Commissioner Judge Matthew Myers, who led this Inquiry, has now returned to the Federal Circuit Court.