Filings on track for historic high 4 min read
While 2025 is tracking ahead of previous record-setting years for class action filings, setting a new benchmark may hinge on a repeat of the late-year filing frenzy seen in the past.
In this interim report, we provide a high-level recap of class action filings and key developments over the first half of the year. A more detailed report on class action trends and developments over the course of 2025 will be provided in our annual Class Action Risk report, which will be published in early 2026.
Filing rates surge, but is it a false positive?
There were 36 class actions filed over the first half of the year—well above the average of 19 from the previous four years—putting 2025 on track to account for the highest number of class action filings in a calendar year in Australian history.
Despite the surge in filings, the underlying risk environment remains largely unchanged. Nineteen of this year’s class actions relate to separate but connected junior doctor underpayment claims, all initiated on the same day.
If these related claims are put to one side, a very different picture emerges of this year's class action environment:
- A total of 17 other class actions have been filed as at 30 June 2025, reflecting a relatively subdued start to the year. The outbreak of filings in the twilight of 2024 (19 actions filed across November-December 2024) may explain the slower start to 2025, as class action promoters appear to have maintained a practice observed over recent years of 'clearing the decks' shortly before the end-of-year break.
- Similar to 2024, there appears to remain a reluctance to pursue competing class actions, with only 3 of the 36 claims filed for the year to date giving rise to an issue of multiplicity of proceedings.
- The types of claims filed have been more concentrated than previous years, with employee, consumer and shareholder class actions accounting for over 70% of filings in 2025.
- A wide range of sectors remain at risk. Over the first six months of the year, the healthcare sector has been in the spotlight, accounting for 56% of new claims (principally as a result of the wave of junior doctor underpayment claims), though class actions have also been filed across the banking and financial services; government; mining, oil and gas; infrastructure, power and utilities and retail and hospitality sectors.
Employee and consumer actions dominate
The clear theme emerging from the first half of 2025 is the rise in employee-related class actions, which accounted for 56% of all filings at the half-year mark (having accounted for approximately 15% of claims over recent years). Most of these actions comprise the junior doctor underpayment claims.
The sample size of other claims makes it difficult to draw conclusions about where the class action landscape may be heading for the rest of 2025, though the rate of consumer claims—which have been the most prominent type of class action for several years—does not appear to be slowing down, accounting for 6 of the other 17 filings over the first half of 2025.
Rebound in shareholder class actions despite ongoing run of losses
In a continuation of a trend that emerged over the final months of 2024, class action promoters have maintained an appetite for bringing shareholder claims following a prolonged drought of filings last year. Over the first half of 2024, no shareholder class actions were filed, though by comparison, four shareholder class actions have been commenced in 2025, with a fifth set to be filed shortly (albeit a competing claim).
Interestingly, the resurgence in shareholder class actions has occurred against the backdrop of a growing body of case law that has highlighted the significant challenges facing plaintiffs in establishing these claims (particularly in proving loss and damage). In the six shareholder class actions that have proceeded to judgment, no plaintiff has established liability and obtained an order for a remedy. With more shareholder class actions poised to run to judgment, it will be interesting to see whether the recent uptick in filings continues over the balance of the year.
Key judgments
The first half of 2025 has seen the High Court weigh in on two important procedural issues in class action practice and procedure:
- clarifying that the courts have power to make soft class closure orders and, in doing so, resolving a division that emerged over recent years between the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the Federal Court regarding the power of those courts to make class closure orders (which play an important role in facilitating settlement discussions); and
- confirming that a group costs order (GCO) made in the Supreme Court of Victoria cannot travel to the Supreme Court of New South Wales, meaning that proceedings commenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria are likely to remain there once a GCO has been made—irrespective of whether another jurisdiction is the more appropriate forum, and particularly where the survival of the proceeding depends on the GCO.
Anticipation is building for a number of further judgments that are set to be handed down over the second half of 2025, including another High Court decision that will determine whether the Federal Court can make a 'common fund order' (CFO) upon settlement or judgment of a class action and, if so, whether the court can also make a CFO in favour of solicitors (ie an order akin to a contingency fee).
What does it all mean for class action risk?
The first half of 2025 has presented a mixed bag in the class actions space. On one hand, the data indicates that this year is on track to deliver a record year in filings. On the other hand, after stripping out a cluster of near identical claims, the risk environment is tracking broadly in line with recent years.
It will be very interesting to see what the rest of the year delivers, which we will unpack in detail in our annual Class Action Risk report in early 2026.