Slater & Gordon : and Gordon delivers best deal for AMP claimants

In a win for aggrieved AMP investors, Slater and Gordon has announced it will offer shareholder claimants the most competitive funding package of all of the five actions announced to date.

Slater and Gordon will undertake its work on any action on a No-Win No-Fee basis enabling litigation funder Therium to slash its funding commission to just 10 per cent.

Head of Class Actions Ben Hardwick said it meant investors had a clear choice about who would deliver the best return.

'The choice is clear-cut. Slater and Gordon's size and scale means we can offer group members the best package of funding terms and credentials in this important class action,' Mr Hardwick said.

'This move will radically reduce the costs Therium will need to fund during the litigation, limiting its outlay on out of pocket disbursements like barrister fees and experts, allowing the funder to offer the extremely low commission rates for this action.'

Mr Hardwick said unlike other litigation funders, Therium calculated its commission on the net settlement after legal costs where other funders calculated their commission on the gross settlement amount.

'While the no win, no fee arrangements offered by other firms are a step in the right direction, it is important for funding arrangements to incentivise the funder to closely supervise lawyers' fees - only our proposal achieves this.'

'When we have compared our hourly rates against other law firms practicing in this area we have always been at the lower end of the market and consistently lower than our major competitor.

'That means, along with an extremely competitive funding arrangement Slater and Gordon's case will be more likely to put more money in the hands of aggrieved investors.' [*See Compariosn rates below]

Mr Hardwick said investors were rightly furious about AMP's conduct as revealed at the Banking Royal Commission.

'Hundreds of mum and dad investors and dozens of institutions have now contacted Slater and Gordon.

'This is some of the fastest uptake we've seen with regard to class actions of this type, which shows the magnitude and pervasiveness of shareholders' losses.

'Given the magnitude of these losses, shareholders will want to ensure they will be well positioned to recover as much as possible from any resulting action.

'Slater and Gordon's, knowledge of this area of law and how these proceedings are best run along with market leading funding terms mean that this offer will be hard to beat,' Mr Hardwick said.

*Comparative rates as announced

Commission rate:

Therium/S+G: 10%
ILP/MBs: 12.5%
Burford/QE: 10%
Others: unknown

Gross or Net Commission

Therium/S+G: Net
ILP/MBs: Gross
Burford/QE: Gross