Judges have no power to order all class action members to pay a proportion of a litigation funder’s commission out of their share of a settlement, the High Court has ruled in a landmark judgment that deals a huge defeat to litigation funders.
The High Court is poised this week to issue its judgment in a case challenging the validity of common fund orders in class actions, a ruling that could see litigation funding commission rates creep back up after hitting record lows.
Mining giant Fortescue Metals is seeking special leave from the High Court to appeal a ruling that granted native title to the Yinjibarndi people over a large section of land in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The High Court has granted a Nigerian agent tricked into terminating his contract with international bank note manufacturer CCL Secure special leave to appeal a Full Federal Court judgment slashing a $65 million award in his favour.
The High Court has shut down a lawsuit by mortgage aggregator Connective Services over the transfer of one third of the company’s shares after finding the proceeding prejudiced shareholders and contravened the Corporations Act.
A challenge by Quinn Emanuel to a NSW Supreme Court decision staying its shareholder class action against AMP has been unanimously dismissed by the Court of Appeal, which found the class action beauty contest was not decided in error and that subsequently filed representative proceedings were not an abuse of process.
Two Australian companies have won their application for special leave to the High Court as they continue their fight to shut down a wrongful death case in the US brought by the families of 15 people killed in an aircraft crash near Lockhart River in northern Queensland in May 2005.
The barrister leading an appeal seeking to revive Quinn Emanuel’s fees for no service class action against AMP has criticised the approach taken in the landmark GetSwift ruling on competing class actions, saying it placed the court in the role of auctioneer and actually encouraged duplicative proceedings.
Pitcher Partners has lost it challenge to a ruling socking it with a $5.6 million bill for an accounting error concealed from client Neville’s Bus Service, with an appeals court saying there was a “clear and principled basis” to require the accounting firm to pay the sum awarded for loss and damage to the transport company.
Indonesian national airline Garuda has been slapped with a $19 million penalty in the ACCC’s decade-long global cartel case over air cargo price-fixing, bringing the total penalties won by the competition regulator over the cartel to $132.5 million.