The Australian litigation crisis

The Australian experience of the past three years provides more illumination. Australia experienced an explosion of litigation in the 1990s, with a succession of class action claims funded with contingency fees, but this boom was brought up short in 2001 when the second largest insurer went bust. Premiums for medical insurance had rocketed and the continuing practice of some medical specialisations was threatened. There was talk of “defensive medicine”, familiar from the USA. (The UK is also worried about malpractice claims swamping the NHS: the Chief Medical Officer issued a report in 2003 recommending that claims be capped at £30,000).