Clients of Storm Financial (Storm) may proceed with individual cases against their financial advisory firm rather than gather in a class action group, a practice group leader with Slater and Gordon has said.
The legal firm has been contacted by more than 260 Storm clients.
Of these clients, the lowest loss for a client is $150,000 with the highest to date being $12 million, Slater and Gordon practice group leader Damien Scatinni told InvestorDaily.
“It [litigation] might not be in the form of a class action, but there’s no suggestion that we’re giving up on anything,” Scatinni said.
The potential class action might not form as class actions are designed for a situation where one size fits all and in this case, the Storm clients have different situations, he said.
“Here we have a number of different players giving varying advice to parties in different situations in different states and countries. It’s just not a neat fit,” Scatinni said.
“It’s a mess and all along the chain the advisers to these people have let them down and we’re going to see what the best form of resolution is for our clients.”
It is not known if and when Storm clients will launch legal proceedings against Storm, though Slater and Gordon will continue to collect details and documents from clients, he said.
“When and if it’s appropriate, and I think it will be, we will issue proceedings in an orderly fashion,” Scatinni said.
“Hopefully common sense will break out and all the parties involved, the insurers and whoever will see there’s no defending the indefensible. But that’s in their hands not ours,” he said.
Storm closed its doors on 15 January 2009 after being placed in voluntary administration on 12 January 2009.
