Insurance

Australia’s largest private health insurer Medibank is facing a class action over a data breach that affected close to 10 million customers.

Two Sydney lawyers have lost an application to set aside bankruptcy notices filed by their insurer claiming over $300,000 in legal costs, after a judge rejected their arguments about an “overarching conspiracy” in the case.

An appeals court has upheld a finding that an unsuccessful class action over the Carwoola bushfire was not entitled to recovery from the insurers of the plumbing company that sparked the blaze.

Three class action law firms have joined forces to run a landmark data breach complaint against Medibank, seeking compensation for up to 9.7 million affected customers. 

Insurer Bond & Credit Company is seeking to join Greensill Group to three lawsuits over the financing firm’s $1.7 billion collapse in March 2020, while Greensill has foreshadowed its own cross-claims against Insurance Australia Group.

A judge has thrown out a long-running class action on behalf of 20 local councils in NSW alleging insurer JLT Risk Solutions charged them hundreds of millions of dollars in excessive premiums over nine years.

Queensland government-owned water services provider Sunwater has lost a bid to overturn a judgment letting insurer Liberty Mutual Insurance off the hook for its share of a $440 million settlement in the Queensland floods class action.

Insurer Allianz has won its challenge to a decision forcing it to indemnify a north Queensland body corporate for cyclone damage despite non-disclosure of serious building defects, with the High Court finding insurers have no general duty to be “decent and fair”.

Medibank was formally notified Tuesday of a class action-style complaint brought on behalf of millions of customers in the wake of last month’s massive data breach.

Two Dixon Advisory insurers have lost a bid to limit the details of insurance policies handed over to a class action purported to worth $463 million, after a judge’s ruled the collapsed wealth manager should disclose its insurance for liability in the case.