yes Sacophagus - i doubt anyone would say the litigation is a 'plus'......but as to liability?
cnp clearly does not concede it incorrectly classified the debt and has no doubt been advised accordingly by its lawyers, thereby forcing the hand of the plaintiff's to issue the class action.
a legal case that is a clear "winner" is rare thing in civil litigation, hence the statistical facts that: - more than 9 out of ten civil cases issued never get to trial - more than half of those that get to trial settle before judgement - class action are even less likely to get to trial.
typical of these disputes will be a myriad of complex legal arguments 'for' and 'against' prepared by leading barristers (ie. QC/SC's at $15,000 per day), a ton of messy documents and disputed evidence, and some poor overworked judge that has to crunch through it all before deciding (with enourmous discretion) the case.
most litigants are not prepared to roll the dice and go to trial. many such cases settle on the making of a 'nuisance value' or token settlement payment that only covers the lawyers costs.
cheers
CNP Price at posting:
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