Ankur Desai

Kenny Henderson from the law firm CMS explains.

Opt-out class action devices are really what we associate with US class actions.

And that is where a claim is issued by a class representative and the class is aggregated automatically.

So if you fall within the class definition, you are in the litigation unless you choose to leave it.

Not everyone is happy about this growing trend, which is now big business.

But is it also simply becoming a legal racket?

We see cases which are brought purely as an exercise in making money for the lawyers and funders who back them.

That's Seema Kennedy.

She's the executive director of Fair Civil Justice, a UK-based group campaigning to improve the current litigation system for businesses and consumers alike.

Lots of overseas businesses are then being sued.

This is really making them think twice about innovating new products and about growing.

So how do defence lawyers themselves respond to the argument?

Steve Berman is something of a legend in this field, with past victories involving settlements running to tens of billions of dollars.

There is a claim that this is beginning to paralyse investment, it's beginning to paralyse industry.

But others say this relentless pursuit of lawfare risks incentivising conflict and paralysing enterprise that should help everyone.

Ed Butler reporting.

And that's all from us for now.

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