Matthew Darke

A judge has grilled the former general counsel of defunct logistics company GetSwift about why he did not confront the company’s directors for “bullying” other executives when they raised concerns about alleged continuous disclosure breaches.

Courts stepped up their scrutiny of class action settlements in 2022, with judges grappling with difficult issues such as funding commissions in employment cases and whether settlements, even those worth hundreds of millions of dollars, were fair to group members.

Sportsbet has won an injunction preventing the owner of the sportsbet.com domain from prosecuting an action in the US, which a judge said sought to interfere with an Australian domain name battle “in the most stark fashion.”

After initial qualms, a judge has signed off on a $29.5 million settlement in a class action against recycling company Sims that includes a “staggering” $8.5 million in legal costs and an insurance policy buffering the funder from adverse costs.

A judge has opened the administration of a $300 million settlement in a pelvic mesh class action to a competitive bidding process, shortly after another judge said law firms were not uniquely qualified to distribute class action spoils.

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.

A judge has rejected Shine Lawyers’ second bid to challenge a court order that it join forces with rival Banton Group in an investor class action Blue Sky Alternative Investments and auditor EY, saying the firm’s funder LCM was trying to “take the bat and ball and go home.” Federal Court Justice Michael Lee rejected…

A judge has thrown out a long-running class action on behalf of 20 local councils in NSW alleging insurer JLT Risk Solutions charged them hundreds of millions of dollars in excessive premiums over nine years.

A law firm has lost its bid to challenge a court order that it join forces with a competing firm in an investor class action against Blue Sky Alternative Investments and auditor EY.

Queensland government-owned water services provider Sunwater has lost a bid to overturn a judgment letting insurer Liberty Mutual Insurance off the hook for its share of a $440 million settlement in the Queensland floods class action.