Class action settlement approval hearings are not a time for the court to second guess a law firm’s contingency fee as set down in a group costs order, a judge has found, but the question of proportionality is still key, and evidence of a firm’s return on investment and hourly fees may be relevant to the final decision.
A judge has signed off on the first-ever settlement allowing a law firm to earn a contingency fee, approving a $12.8 million cut for Slater & Gordon in a shareholder class action against G8 Education.
Buoyed by the recent trial success of CBA and other companies facing shareholder ire, building materials giant Boral is taking its chances at a hearing in a class action alleging disclosure breaches linked to its US windows business.
The High Court has agreed to step in to resolve division among Australia’s courts on the question of power to make orders that exclude unregistered group members from class action settlements.
A $13.5 million settlement has been reached in a Gadens-led class action against former Quintis director Frank Wilson, and the funder of a rival class action is preparing to seek a chunk of the sum in what a judge has called a āmost unusual circumstanceā.
A class action has lost its appeal to the High Court in a case alleging Advanta Seeds owed damages to farmers for the economic loss resulting from its negligence in producing contaminated grain sorghum seed, with the justices clarifying that a duty of care may be established only if responsibility is assumed.
The High Court has been asked to overturn a Full Court decision finding lawyers can take a cut from a class action settlement under a solicitorsā common fund order and to finally settle the question of whether the court has the power to issue common fund orders at all.
The High Court is scheduled to hand down a judgment in a class action on Wednesday on the power of a product disclaimer to protect manufacturers from claims they owe a duty of care to protect purchasers from pure economic loss.
A Gadens-led class action against former Quintis director Frank Wilson has settled, but a second class action filed by a rival firm has flagged a potential claim on the settlement funds over a cause of action said to have been āpicked up parasiticallyā.Ā
In the first-ever settlement approval hearing involving a group costs order, a contradictor has argued that Slater & Gordon should have provided the court with more information on legal costs and internal rate of return as part of its bid for a $12.8 million contingency fee.