It has not taken long. Media reports of lawyers investigating potential class actions in connection with the Ruby Princess debacle will not be the last we hear about plaintiff law firms exploring class action litigation arising from the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

As the impact of the coronavirus deepens, consumers and affected businesses will look for avenues to recover and, inevitably, law firms and litigation funders will be looking for opportunities to act, just as they did in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis.

While the situation is changing every day, in this article we set out our current thinking on the risks that potential class action targets might be facing in the fall-out from the COVID-19 pandemic.