Jerome Entwisle

Class action settlement sums reached new highs last year, with the ten largest agreements totalling almost $1 billion, almost half of which was secured by one plaintiff law firm.

The Australian supplier of alleged combustible cladding is opposing a class action applicant’s bid for information ahead of settlement talks on the quantity of cladding sold in the country between 2009 and 2019.

Insurers will file de-classing applications in four class actions on behalf of small businesses seeking coverage under business interruption policies for losses flowing from COVID-19 restrictions after their test cases largely failed. 

Westpac has lost a bid to keep group members in the dark about the premiums paid for allegedly worthless consumer credit insurance, information the bank said could inflate expectations about settlements worth $126 million reached in three class actions.

Westpac has objected to several proposed notices going out to group members in a class action over ‘junk’ consumer credit insurance, which three of the Big Four banks have agreed to pay $126 million to settle.

ANZ and Westpac have failed in their bid for a contradictor to weigh in on a contingency fee bid in two class actions, as the law firm that lost the first ever application for a group costs order tries again.

Nuix has pointed the finger at its accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers in the software company’s defence to a class action over a prospectus for its $1.8 billion IPO two years ago.

An appeals court’s “radical” approach in the treatment of JobKeeper payments won’t be scrutinised by the High Court, which on Friday declined to hear an appeal by IAG in the second set of COVID-19 business interruption test cases.

Insurer QBE has settled a class action over ANZ’s sale of allegedly worthless add-on insurance, and the applicants are “hopeful” that the bank and two other named insurers will soon reach a deal to resolve the claims against them.

Property owners are fighting arguments that claims in a class action over allegedly combustible cladding do not fall under a $190 million insurance policy’s definition of property damage, saying installing the cladding was like “dousing one’s house in kerosene”.