With mediation failing to resolve an expansive class action against the federal government over its use of allegedly toxic firefighting foam, a judge has charted a plan to avoid a “Brobdingnagian” trial and efficiently determine the claims of group members around eight military bases across Australia.
A judge has allowed a new applicant to lead a shareholder class action against recycling company Sims Metal Management, ruling that he could not force the original applicant to continue in the role when it wanted to back out.
The Federal Court has given the greenlight to a $30 million settlement in Shine Lawyers’ insurance class action against Westpac and will allow post-settlement registration notices to be sent to group members.
The former senior counsel in a settled insurance class action against Westpac has had his fees reduced by $70,000 after the Federal Court heard some of the work for which he charged was not done in the interests of group members.
The judge overseeing class actions against Commonwealth Bank over its money laundering compliance failures has threatened to force the parties to go to trial by a certain date if they can’t agree to “sensible” time limits to ready the case for hearing, noting he would reach retirement age in 2024.
A judge has said the applicant in a class action against Brambles has āside-steppedā a challenge to a landmark class closure ruling that found there was no statutory power to shut out unregistered class action members, a decision that he said had ābedevilledā the courts.
The number of lawyers involved in a class action against 3A Composites over allegedly combustible cladding is set to balloon, with the German cladding manufacturer lobbing cross-claims against nine different parties.
A judge has denied a law firm’s bid to stay a rival’s closed shareholder class action against construction giant Boral but warned courts must be alive to the potential for conflicts where lawyers stand to reap “very significant financial awards” from class action proceedings.
A judge has approved a $50 million settlement in a shareholder class action against failed training company Vocation and auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, but questioned whether the $10.9 million commission and $12.75 million legal bill could have been “materially lower” had the case been run by one funder and firm instead of two.
Four executives of the failed Arrium have named auditor KPMG as a “concurrent wrongdoer” in defending a shareholder class action over a $754 million capital raising two years prior to the mining and steel giant’s $2 billion collapse.