Payouts in class actions in 2020 largely kept pace with the previous year despite the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, with companies and other defendants paying more than $696 million to settle class actions last year.
Two psychiatrists at the heart of the Chelmsford deep sleep therapy scandal have launched an appeal of a decision dismissing their defamation case against HarperCollins as an attempt to “rewrite history” regarding the harm done to those receiving the controversial treatment.
Major fertility clinic Monash IVF has been hit with a class action on behalf of at least 100 men and women demanding damages for the destruction of potentially viable embryos.
Two law firms have launched a class action against NSW Health on behalf of over 10,000 junior doctors for its alleged failure to pay overtime hours.
Reports exposing serious government and healthcare failures amid Victoria’s second COVID-19 wave have strengthened the claims in class actions against the Andrews government and two aged care providers, according to the law firm behind the cases.
A unit of Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay around $40 million in legal costs to the lead applicants in a class action over pelvic mesh implants after a judge dismissed the company’s bid to stay the costs until after a high profile appeal is heard next year.
A judge has approved an application to join the insurer of a former doctor into a class action seeking compensation for defective pelvic mesh implants and wants to fast-track the matter for trial next year.
Two units of US drug giant Johnson & Johnson have filed a lawsuit seeking preliminary discovery from Juno Pharmaceuticals for a possible patent lawsuit over a popular chemotherapy drug used to treat blood cancer.
Neurim Pharmaceuticals can seek limited additional damages in a patent infringement case relating to its insomnia drug Circadin, after a judge granted a mid-trial bid to amend its pleadings against Generic Partners and Apotex.
A judge has enjoined Merck Sharpe and Dohme from launching its 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine after finding it would infringe claims of a Wyeth patent for its Prevnar 13 vaccine, despite MSD’s argument that barring it from launching the vaccine would be contrary to the public interest.