The High Court has agreed to rule on whether common fund orders can ever be made in class actions, including so-called solicitors’ common fund orders allowing lawyers to earn a cut of any settlement.
A commission baked into a funding agreement in a class action against Mayne Pharma is under threat, with a judge mulling an order off his own bat to cut the rate.
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”.
Class closure orders are “anathema” to the purpose of group proceedings in facilitating access to justice and should never be ordered, the High Court has been told.
The judge overseeing a $180.4 million settlement in a stolen wages class action has railed against Shine Lawyers’ $10 million bill for the costs of registration, saying “something has gone seriously wrong”.
The funder and law firm that ran a shareholder class action against Mayne Pharma are seeking deductions that would leave more than half of a $38 million settlement for group members.
A bid to disqualify a judge who spoke publicly about proposed reforms to class action law from hearing a class action against Fletcher Building is out of touch with reality, a court has heard.
The applicants in a class action against Lendlease have found common ground with the construction giant in High Court submissions, both arguing for power to make class closure orders.
Boral has asked the Full Court to hear its appeal of a decision allowing its former CEO to be questioned about an email that mentioned a confidential EY report.
A judge should be disqualified from hearing a class action against Fletcher Building because of his previous association with the funder, as well as public remarks he made as a plaintiffs’ solicitor, a court has heard.