Settlement

A judge overseeing a superannuation class action against two Westpac units that settled for $30 million has flagged the possibility of appointing a contradictor to examine the litigation funder’s claimed cut of the settlement, which includes a deduction of over $1 million to cover the costs of after-the-event insurance.

Facebook has agreed to pay a $20 million penalty for misleading consumers by representing that its discontinued Onavo Protect mobile app would keep users’ personal activity data private, when in fact it was being collected for commercial use.

The judge weighing the legal costs sought to be deducted from a $300 million settlement in pelvic mesh class actions against Johnson & Johnson has questioned Shine Lawyers’ bid to make group members pay $32 million in interest incurred on a loan the firm took out at “credit card” rates.

A judge has questioned an $11 million settlement in a class action against retirement village provider Aveo, resolving to appoint a contradictor and a costs referee amid a dispute between the plaintiff law firm and its litigation funder, which the court heard has “grave concerns” about the costs incurred in the case.

Cruise operator Scenic Tours has agreed to settle a long-running class action with travellers who were promised a “once in a lifetime cruise along the grand waterways of Europe” but were instead forced to take the bus, after almost ten years of litigation that went all the way to the High Court.

A judge who eviscerated a prior bid by a law firm and funder to take home 60 per cent of a $5 million class action settlement with Tyro has allowed them to net half of the proceeds, questioning whether some of the costs amounted to a “complete breach” of legal professional duties.

The last remaining class action against the Department of Defence over the use of alleged toxic firefighting foam at a military base in Jervis Bay has settled for $22 million, from which $5 million will be deducted for legal costs. 

A judge has approved a $5 million class action settlement against payment processor Tyro over a service outage but has shredded the proposed funder payout and legal fees that would have comprised 60 per cent of the sum, calling the costs “outrageous”. 

A contradictor in two pelvic mesh class actions against Johnson & Johnson and unit Ethicon has told the court of the “extraordinary amount of group member unhappiness” following approval of a $300 million settlement – the largest in the history of Australian product liability group proceedings.

A clash between a class action applicant and a litigation funder over $1.2 million in claimed expenses has settled, after a judge ordered the sides to personally attend mediation.