A costs report in a settled class action against Woolworths that recommended almost $800,000 in legal fee deductions failed to wrestle with a key factor in weighing the proportionality of the costs, a judge has said.
Companies will face penalties of up to $50 million for serious privacy law breaches under legislation to be introduced the Attorney-General following data breaches by Optus, Medibank and Woolworths unit MyDeal.
Explaining his decision to reject a class action settlement that would have earned a law firm $1.75 million but provided nothing to 27,000 Woolworths employees, a judge has said the agreement created a conflict of interest between the solicitors and the workers they sought to set “adrift”.
A class action settlement with Woolworths which “troubled” a Federal Court judge has been abandoned, with the lead applicants resuming their bid to intervene in a parallel proceeding brought by the Fair Work Ombudsman against the supermarket giant.
If evidence were needed that courts are not rubber stamping class action settlements, the scrutiny of multi-million dollar agreements in 2021 is proof positive that judicial oversight of representative proceedings is robust.
Law firm Maddocks has been ordered to pay more than $1.4 million in indemnity costs for âthrowing good money after badâ in failing to consider a settlement offer in a negligence lawsuit over a client’s botched deal with Woolworths.Â
Saying it will only benefit the law firm and lead applicants, a judge has refused to approve a settlement in an underpayments class action against supermarket giant Woolworths, which would see no payout to employees.
Woolworths has agreed to pay $1.75 million in Adero Law’s legal costs as part of a settlement of an underpayments class action which will see group members recoup any amounts they are owed in a separate proceeding brought by the Fair Work Ombudsman rather than the class action.
Supermarket giant Woolworths will pay an additional $50 million to current and former salaried team members and has provisionally settled an underpayments class action against it.
Supermarket giant Woolworths has denied the Fair Work Ombudsman is entitled to seek compensation for its underpayment of staff, saying its $330 million remediation to affected employees fully answers the regulator’s case.