You may have been badly wronged, but not have the resources to launch large-scale litigation on your own.
Sometimes that’s because the losses of each individual are quite small. Other times, individual losses may be large, but you still lack the money to take your case to court.
MC can help. As New Zealand’s leading public interest law firm, we believe everyone has a right to seek justice.
We welcome approaches from individuals, groups, investors, liquidators and other organisations who may have a potential legal claim – but aren’t sure if they can manage and fund a case on their own.
ASSESSING YOUR CASE
Our Access to Justice & Class Actions team will first assess your case to see if it has legal merit – and if there are ways MC can help.
Cases where access to justice issues are most likely to arise include:
- defective product issues
- other consumer protection law issues
- financial and corporate misconduct
- investor claims
- shareholder claims
- large-scale tort law claims
To help you decide whether or not to proceed with a claim, we will work with you to establish who else may have suffered similar harms – and how long a claim may take and what it may cost.
It may be that launching a class action is a possibility. MC is experienced in running class actions and can help determine whether or not your claim could be run as one.
CLASS ACTIONS
Class actions (called “representative proceedings” in New Zealand) enable people to come together to protect their rights and to seek compensation. They provide access to justice and promote corporate accountability and responsibility.
Class actions are most common when a large number of people may have suffered from the same wrong – but when each person’s losses may be too small to justify taking a claim on their own.
In New Zealand, class actions are currently regulated by the High Court Rules. Under these rules, New Zealanders can group together and pursue common legal action in a single court case, to protect their rights and seek compensation. This reduces the time and cost for individuals bringing the claim, and spreads any risk among all of them.
DE-RISKING LITIGATION COSTS
Whether it is a class action or an individual claim, MC can work with a litigation funder to carry the cost of taking your case.
If a litigation funder becomes involved, they will usually pay MC and meet all other costs of the litigation, even if the legal proceeding is not successful. In return, the litigation funder takes a share of the proceeds should the case succeed at trial or be settled.
If litigation funding is an option for your claim, MC will work with you to secure support from a litigation funder so that the financial risk to you becomes very low or zero.
OUR MAJOR PUBLIC INTEREST AND CLASS ACTION CASES
MC is New Zealand’s leading public interest law firm. Some of our recent public interest cases include:
- Alleged failures by ANZ in its management of customer funds: MC is representing over 500 Ross Asset Management investors and alleges that they were let down by its banker, ANZ. The class action is seeking $80 million in damages and is funded by New Zealand litigation funder LPF.
- Failure of CBL: MC is representing shareholders of CBL Corporation Limited (in liquidation) to seek compensation for the significant financial losses they suffered when the company collapsed in 2018. The claim alleges there were false or misleading statements made in the IPO documents in September 2015, and then ongoing breaches of continuous disclosure obligations.
- Failed metal hip implants: MC represented patients who received faulty hip implants from multinational surgical manufacturer DuPuy International. The patients wanted to test whether the ACC bar against claims for personal injury applied when a foreign company outside New Zealand was responsible for their injuries. The claim was privately funded.
- Leaky school buildings: MC represented the Ministry of Education and school boards of trustees throughout New Zealand, in a substantial legal case that alleged that Carter Holt Harvey supplied a defective cladding product.
