21 July 2023

Trial dates are fixed

Stillwater is pleased to confirm that this action will go to trial in June 2024. The first day of trial has been fixed for 10:15 am on Monday, 3 June 2024. The parties estimate the trial will take 8 weeks.

We invite you to view the trial timetable in the Orders made on 13 July 2023, using the link above to the Federal Court’s website.

9 January 2023

Tentative trial date

At Stillwater’s requests, Justice Lee has tentatively fixed a date for an initial trial. Unless varied by further order, at this stage, the matter will be proceeding to a contravention trial in February 2024.

We invite you to view the orders recently made on 19 December 2022 in this regard, using the link above to the Federal Court’s website.

The next case management hearing is on 27 March 2023, the purpose of which will be to determine the timetable of steps to ready the matter for the initial trial.

12 August 2022

Case Management Update

On 11 July 2022, the Honourable Justice Michael Lee, reviewed the matter and has made additional Orders to supplement the timetable set by Justice Beach. To view the current court-ordered timetable of steps, please download the Orders dated 30 May 2022 and 11 July 2022 from the Court’s website using the link above.

The next case management conference before the Court will occur in Brisbane on 6 October 2022.

1 June 2022

Stanwell and CSE ordered to provide discovery

Following a contested hearing in recent weeks, Stillwater has obtained orders for discovery of a number of categories of documents from the respondents. Those orders require Stanwell and CSE to complete discovery by mid-September 2022 and to verify that they have carried out reasonable searches for relevant documents.

To view the list of the categories of documents that must be provided by the respondents, we invite you to download a copy of the Orders made on 30 May 2022, which are available from the Court’s website using the link above.

The class action will come before his Honour Justice Beach again on 20 October 2022 for further directions regarding a trial plan.

27 January 2022

Judge sets a timetable to progress the action

Federal Court Justice Jonathan Beach has charted a timetable to finally progress with the next formal steps in the Queensland Electricity Class Action. The timetable now includes a deadline for the respondents to file their defences by the end of March 2022 and orders in respect of discovery.

Although the class action was commenced last January 2021, progress has been impeded by collateral attacks, the most recent example being Stanwell's unsuccessful CALF Application. Notably though, at the case management hearing on 17 December 2021, Justice Beach said he is not going to allow "any further expansion of the procedural timetable".

We invite you to view the current Court-ordered timetable dated 22 December 2021 on the Federal Court's website using the link above.

18 November 2021

Successful defence of Stanwell's CALF Application

The Honourable Justice Jonathan Beach has delivered judgment dismissing the parallel lawsuit brought by Stanwell in proceedings QUD201 of 2021 (CALF Application).

In the CALF Application, Stanwell sought to restrain the further progress of the QLD Electricity Class Action by arguing that the litigation funding scheme supporting the class action did not comply with the managed investment scheme (MIS) rules, which rules came into effect on 22 August 2020.

Stillwater maintained that the class action is grandfathered (i.e. exempt) from the MIS regulations and we are pleased to report that the Court agrees.

In rejecting Stanwell's arguments as "incoherent" and "misconceived", Justice Beach concluded that the scheme in respect of which over 50,000 group members had signed up for the class action was grandfathered from the regulatory changes. Notably, 11,000 group members had registered prior to the MIS rules coming into effect on 22 August 2020. More broadly, it was said that the MIS rules are ill-suited to the class action regime in any event.

Irrespective of the grandfathering question, his Honour said he would have declined the declaratory and injunctive relief that was sought by Stanwell because it served "no utility or purpose".

As part of the judgment delivered on 17 November 2021, his Honour also confirmed that Stillwater's proposed form of security is appropriate. In relation to the class action defendants' Security Applications (defined below), Stillwater contended that its proposed deed of indemnity provides adequate security for the class action defendants' costs, while at the same time presents a more cost effective form of security compared with a bank guarantee or deposit into Court. By arranging a deed of indemnity, Stillwater achieved significant cost savings for the class members.

We invite you to view Justice Beach's full judgment in Stanwell Corporation Limited v LCM Funding Pty Ltd [2021] FCA 1430, as published here: https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2021/2021fca1430

13 October 2021

Independent Costs Referee

We are pleased to advise that at our request, the Court has appointed a legal costs specialist to regularly review and independently advise as to whether our firm’s legal costs in these proceedings are reasonable (Reference). The Reference will be carried out on a confidential basis to assist the Court in its supervision of the Class Action.

A copy of the relevant Orders are available from the Court’s website using the link provided above.

14 September 2021

Amendment Application granted - Registrations have now closed

We are pleased to report that the Court has granted our application to amend the group member definition in the proceedings so as to include additional group members to the action who registered between 21 January 2021 and 13 September 2021 (inclusive) (Amendment Application).

13 September 2021 was the last date to register for the action. Our registration portal is now closed.

To view the Court's Orders granting the Amendment Application, please visit the Federal Court website using the link provided above.

27 August 2021

QECA Update

The QLD Electricity Class Action is represented by the Lead Applicant - Stillwater Pastoral Pty Ltd.

Since the commencement of the QLD Electricity Class Action on 20 January 2021, there have been three case management hearings on 8 March 2021, 11 May 2021 and 4 August 2021.

The QLD Electricity Class Action was originally allocated to the case docket of the Honourable Justice Derrington but subsequently reallocated to the Honourable Justice Beach on 28 May 2021.

No defences have yet been filed by either Stanwell or CS Energy and no Court approved notices have been sent to group members.

At the first case management hearing on 8 March 2021 before Justice Derrington, Stillwater gave notice of an intention to make an application to amend the group member definition in the proceedings to include the several thousand group members who registered to participate in the QLD Electricity Class Action after the proceedings were filed (Amendment Application). Stanwell and CS Energy gave notice of an intention to apply for security for costs (Security Applications).

The Security Applications will be heard on 7 September 2021. The Amendment Application will be heard on 13 September 2021.

Stanwell and CS Energy have delivered extensive requests for particulars of Stillwater’s statement of claim. Our expert team has been downloading and analysing a vast amount of data in order to respond to the requests for particulars. That data consists of several billion data points amounting to around 205GB.

Stillwater delivered a first tranche of particulars on 24 March 2021, a second tranche of particulars on 7 May 2021, including over 6,500 excel spreadsheets of information, and a third tranche of particulars on 25 August 2021, including around 8,500 excel spreadsheets.

Stanwell has commenced parallel proceedings which in effect assert that the litigation funding scheme supporting the QLD Electricity Class Action is required to comply with amendments to the Corporations Regulations 2001 (Cth) which took effect in 22 August 2020 (CALF Application). Stillwater and the funder of the QLD Electricity Class Action, LCM, strongly believe the QLD Electricity Class Action litigation funding scheme is grandfathered from the regulatory changes. Additionally, LCM, which is separately represented in relation to the CALF Application, has applied for an order that an issue arising from the CALF Application be referred directly to the Full Court of the Federal Court for determination.

These issues have been set down for hearing before Justice Beach on 13 and 14 September 2021.

4 June 2021

Extended date for registrations

The Court has amended the hearing date for our application to include additional registrants to the action, from 12 July 2021 to 13 September 2021.

The new hearing date means that anyone still wishing to join the class action, has further time to register their interest.

20 January 2021

The QLD Electricity Class Action has been filed.

The QLD Electricity Class Action has been filed today in the Federal Court of Australia. The claim was filed by Piper Alderman on behalf of over 46,000 electricity consumers. The majority of registrants are residential energy customers. However, there are also over 1,700 businesses registered. These comprise ASX listed companies, industrial users of electricity and SMEs. The claim filed today is seeking damages on behalf of registered participants only, however, Piper Alderman has indicated that it will apply to join new registrants to the action providing a final opportunity for electricity consumers to join the action if they wish.