Owen Nanlohy

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”.

A $100 million settlement by AMP in a class action by financial planners over the wealth manager’s buyer of last resort policy has been given the OK, but the litigation funder won’t be reimbursed for $2.6 million in insurance and administrative costs.

A judge has quashed the OAIC’s decision to reject a second class action-style complaint filed over the massive Optus data breach, finding the Privacy Act does not bar second-in-time proceedings. 

A judge has dismissed a bid by Medibank to restrain the Office of Australian Information Commissioner from proceeding with a class action-style complaint on behalf of millions of the private health insurer’s customers affected by an October 2022 data breach.

Two firms have agreed to consolidate their class actions against online trading platform IG Markets over risky CFDs, but the company failed in a bid to have the two funders behind the cases liable for 100% of any security for costs order lest one funder defaults.

Medibank has asked a judge to put the kibosh on class action-style proceedings filed with the OAIC, arguing findings inconsistent with those in a class action over its October 2022 data breach could do damage to the public’s view of the court.

The judge who rewarded the law firm with the lowest ever GCO proposal with carriage of an $80 million class action this week noted the competitive forces that shaped a “very good deal for group members,” but competition has its downsides, experts say.

A judge has approved a common fund order awarding $6.88 million to the funder behind a class action against Fonterra that settled for $25 million, opting not to wait for a much-anticipated appeals court ruling on the power to make CFOs at settlement.

The winning, 14 per cent contingency fee proposal by Slater & Gordon in a fight to run a class action against Star Entertainment was not driven by a desire to prevail in the contest and buy market share but was the product of a “reasoned decision” that took into account the law firm’s practice as a whole, a judge has found.

One law firm has emerged victorious in a four-way contest to run a shareholder class action against Star Entertainment with the lowest proposed group costs order since contingency fees legislation was enacted in Victoria.