Law firms running competing shareholder class actions against a2 Milk appear to have reached agreement to join forces, with a court order Thursday scrapping a contest to determine which case would proceed alone.
The High Court has ordered the building and construction union to pay a maximum fine of $63,000 for telling workers they could not be on a job site if they were not union members, saying its serial offending showed it had no “regard for the law”.
A judge has censured Domino’s Pizza and the lead applicant in an underpayments class action, saying their lack of cooperation made his “blood boil”.
Class action settlement totals skyrocketed to over $900 million last year, and one law firm negotiated the lion’s share, with $672 million in settlements under its belt.
A “full-blooded carriage fight” is set down for next year between two competing class actions alleging dairy giant a2 Milk misled shareholders with an overly optimistic prediction of its infant formula sales.
Two landmark class actions seeking damages from the Victorian government for economic losses suffered during last year’s second wave of COVID-19 have been thrown out, but one of the cases will be given a second chance to proceed.
In the crucial early years of practice junior barristers have been deprived of vital learning opportunities as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns necessitating the move to online court hearings. The promised return to in-person proceedings is critical for the professional development of counsel just starting out, and equally critical for the Bar as a whole, says noted silk Rachel Doyle.
As the courts open up after 18 months of online hearings, junior barristers who were recently called to the bar may be apprehensive at the move to in-person appearances. Here, ten top silks share their wisdom with new barristers on how to be an effective advocate in court.
The lawyers and funder behind a shareholder class action against Crown Resorts will be asking the court to approve fees and commission worth 35 per cent of a $125 million settlement with the gaming giant, leaving over $81 million for group members.
A judge has directed that the legal fees and funding commission sought to be deducted from a $125 million class action settlement with Crown Resorts be included in a proposed notice to shareholders, after learning that group members were forced to click through to Maurice Blackburn’s website to find the “critical” figures.