The Federal Court is pushing ahead with an expedited trial in Icon Co’s case against Liberty Mutual Insurance and QBE over the Opal Tower disaster, just one month after originally scheduled, and it’s going online to do it.
A subsidiary of BHP Billiton can’t get its hands on underwriting documents in its case against Lloyd’s of London and Berkley Insurance, which are being sued by the mining giant for over $36 million after allegedly substandard equipment was installed at its Olympic Dam Mine.
With the common fund order tossed in a class action against two IAG entities over allegedly worthless add-on insurance, a Federal Court judge on Tuesday was asked to grapple with a practice note in determining when to notify group members of a possible order to “equitably and fairly” distribute the legal costs and funding commission in the proceedings.
An individual claimant accusing AMP Financial Planning of ignoring multiple attempts to gain remediation for alleged insurance re-writing conduct was granted permission to voice his displeasure in court, while ASIC and AMP grapple with the details of a remediation program for insurance churn victims.
Slater and Gordon has expanded its Get Your Insurance Back campaign, launching class actions against ANZ and Westpac over allegedly worthless consumer credit insurance, just three months after it reached a $49.5 million settlement with NAB in a class action over similar insurance.
A judge has questioned whether he should sign off on a $49.5 million settlement in a class action against National Australia Bank over allegedly worthless credit card insurance, which he said had a “fundamental flaw” because it did not contain a provision automatically cancelling group members’ policies.
An insurance broker breached its duties to a software company and must cover the costs of a settlement it reached with Microsoft for copyright infringement, a court has found.
Life insurer TAL has stood by its decision to deny coverage to a cancer patient, which landed it in hot with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, saying it would not have issued the policy had it known the patient saw a psychologist on several occasions.
Westpac has criticised Shine Lawyers for allegedly turning a registration and opt out notice to class action members into a ‘sales pitch’ designed to book-build for the firm, saying the High Court’s recent common fund ruling forbade approval of anything designed to boost the commercial viability of a case.
The High Court has declined two insurers’ request for review of a decision that left them on the hook for covering part of a $6 million class action settlement by Bank of Queensland.