Settlement

A group of surgeons who worked for The Cosmetic Institute are set to pay $25 million to settle a class action brought on behalf of 13,500 patients who claim they were injured by botched breast augmentation surgery.

A class action seeking to hold a regional NSW law firm liable for the actions of a former employee who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for fraud offences in 2021 has reached a settlement. 

A bid by the law firm behind a settled class action against Hays Recruitment to increase a cap on costs to settle a spat with a litigation funder has been dashed, with a judge pulling up the firm for failing to inform the court of the funder’s claim.

A funder that bankrolled a class action that was stayed against Dixon Advisory has argued it should receive $969,000 from a $16 million settlement reached in the competing proceedings that went ahead, saying its costs were spent to protect group members’ interests.

A judge has approved a settlement in a shareholder class action against livestock exporter Wellard that grants a 34 per cent cut for group members, saying that investors had agreed to the lawyers and funder receiving the “lion’s share”. 

When the Supreme Court of Victoria considers for the first time a settlement reached in a class action run on a contingency fee basis, it will grapple with some novel questions, including whether to trim the 27.5 per cent group costs order granted to Slater & Gordon at the outset of the case, legal experts say.

Australia’s largest childcare centre operator G8 Education has agreed to pay $46.5 million to settle a shareholder class action alleging the company failed to keep investors in the loop about factors affecting its 2017 financial performance, and the firm that ran the case is set to make $13 million after securing the first group costs order in Victoria.

On the eve of trial, rideshare giant Uber has agreed to pay $271.8 million to settle a five-year-old class action brought by taxi and hire car drivers in four states over the introduction of UberX.

A settlement of up to $1.325 million in an employment class action against labour hire firm Hays Specialist Recruitment has been approved, but a proposal by the applicant’s law firm to increase a promised limit on costs in order to resolve a row with a funder has drawn a judge’s ire.

Group members in a class action against Nine over its coverage of litigation related to the 2004 Palm Island riots will receive between $2,000 to $5,200 as part of a settlement reached to resolve the case.