A court has approved a $170 million settlement in a class action against Allianz, and has signed off on an order that gives the firms behind the case 25 per cent of the deal.
The Supreme Court of Victoria has been urged not to meddle with a 25 per cent group costs order in a junk insurance class action that settled for $170 million, in what would be the court’s second blessing of a law firm contingency fee.
Class action settlements leaped in value last year, with three settlements topping the $200 million mark.
The judge overseeing class actions against Uber has approved a $271.8 million settlement, which includes an $82 million deduction for the funder and $39 million for the firm that ran the cases.
Almost 7,000 taxi drivers who did not sign up to two class actions against Uber by the deadline are asking the court for a cut of a $272 million settlement, with a judge questioning what she “unleashed” when sending out the notice of settlement.
The judge considering a $272 million settlement in class actions against Uber will appoint a pair of contradictors to advise her on the hundreds of objections lobbed against the agreement.
The funder behind two class actions against Uber, which have settled for $272 million, stands to make a tidy sum if the settlement holds up at a court approval hearing.
On the eve of trial, rideshare giant Uber has agreed to pay $271.8 million to settle a five-year-old class action brought by taxi and hire car drivers in four states over the introduction of UberX.
Uber and the applicants in class actions against the car service will head into mediation later this year, and only group members who sign up to join the cases will get a chance to share in the proceeds of any settlement that results from the talks.
In the latest skirmish over documents in two class actions, Uber has mostly won a bid to shield almost 150 documents on the grounds of privilege, with a judge finding the misconduct exception that has previously bedevilled the rideshare giant did not apply.