The parties in a class action against the Federal Government over the controversial Robodebt scheme have reached an in principle settlement as the first day of a highly anticipated hearing was scheduled to kick off.
A judge has expressed doubts that every group member in the Robodebt class action is vulnerable, as the parties gear up for two-week trial in the high-profile case over the unlawful debt recovery method that begins Monday.
The Federal Government has critised as “hopelessly defective” a lawsuit alleging it failed to disclose the impacts of climate change to investors in sovereign bonds, and the judge overseeing the matter has also raised concerns about the case.
A judge has refused an application by the Federal Government to appeal the expansion of the Robodebt class action pleadings despite finding the case was “troubling”, “weak” and in certain aspects “[made] no sense whatsoever”.
The Federal Government is appealing a judge’s decision to allow the expansion of the Robodebt class action to include claims against five public officers, including Federal Minister Alan Tudge.
A judge has slammed the parties in the Robodebt class action for sparring over the pleadings, one week after the class was given leave to add a claim for exemplary damages and allege knowledge of the program’s unlawfulness on the part of several government officials and federal minister Alan Tudge.
A judge has given the green light for the applicants in the Robodebt class action to file an amended statement of claim on the eve of trial that adds a claim for exemplary damages and drags five government employees into the proceedings.
The receivers for funds manager Equititrust, who are suing the name partners of law firm Tucker & Cowen, have failed in their bid to have further security for costs paid in the form of deeds of indemnity, despite telling the court that funder Vannin might withdraw its support for the litigation.
A former executive of BlueScope Steel has pleaded guilty to obstructing an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission price fixing investigation, in the first criminal charges ever brought against an individual in relation to an ACCC probe.
A judge has stopped short of rejecting new claims in the Robodebt class action despite “obvious errors” in the allegations, but has sent the applicants back to the drawing board and warned them the matter would not proceed as a “dog’s breakfast”.