Fiona Forsyth

A court has approved a settlement worth up to $202 million in a stolen wages class action against the government, but will hear further argument on the legal costs of the case.

A judge presiding over two competing class actions against Harvey Norman has granted the lawyers more time to confer on whether they can reach a deal to run the cases together. 

Shine Lawyers wants to claim $24.5 million in legal costs in a stolen wages class action on behalf of Northern Territory First Nations people, a sum a judge called “eye watering”.

As two class actions against Harvey Norman try to hash out a deal before competing to run the litigation, a judge has issued a warning to other law firms mulling their own actions.

The state of Victoria is resisting a class action’s bid to identify police officers recorded using capsicum spray against protestors at a mining conference in 2019.

Class action settlement approval hearings are not a time for the court to second guess a law firm’s contingency fee as set down in a group costs order, a judge has found, but the question of proportionality is still key, and evidence of a firm’s return on investment and hourly fees may be relevant to the final decision.

A judge has signed off on the first-ever settlement allowing a law firm to earn a contingency fee, approving a $12.8 million cut for Slater & Gordon in a shareholder class action against G8 Education.

A judge has allowed a law firm running a shareholder class action against medical glove maker Ansell to earn a 40 per cent contingency fee, but slashed the rate for settlements or judgments over $50 million.

Two judges have declined to award carriage of a class action against International Capital Markets over risky derivative products to a firm accused of plagiarising its rivals’ pleading.

In the first-ever settlement approval hearing involving a group costs order, a contradictor has argued that Slater & Gordon should have provided the court with more information on legal costs and internal rate of return as part of its bid for a $12.8 million contingency fee.