Common fund orders are the completion of the notion of class actions envisaged when the regime was introduced 27 years ago, a joint-sitting of two appeals courts was told on the second and last day of a landmark challenge to what has become an oft-used case management tool by trial judges.
An appeal before a historic joint sitting of two courts over so-called common fund orders in class actions kicked off Monday with a full bench of six judges and a packed courtroom hearing arguments by eminent barristers for BMW and Westpac that the orders are either preemptive or pointless.
A challenge to the legality of common fund orders, an appeal to the High Court over the power of judges to stay competing cases, one of the first judgments in a shareholder class action and reform proposals promise to make 2019 another action-packed year in class actions. Here, experts give their predictions for the class action landscape this year.
And then there were four. Plaintiffs law firm Slater & Gordon wants to consolidate its AMP shareholder class action with Maurice Blackburn’s case and hand over the reins to its rival, a deal signed the day the Full Federal Court affirmed the power of judges to shut down competing class actions.
The showdown between five law firms vying to lead a class action over the AMP fees for no service scandal kicked off in the NSW Supreme Court Thursday with counsel for one case saying the contest, although costly and consuming, would ultimately be a win for all class action participants.
AMP’s advice executive Jack Regan, the witness who aired the firm’s fees-for-no-service dirty laundry at the Royal Commission, has retired, a day before five law firms compete to lead a class action over the scandal.
Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan will call in US experts to back up its proposed “step up” funding model as five law firms begin a high stakes battle to lead a shareholder class action against AMP.
Hancock Prospecting, owned by mining magnate Mrs Gina Rinehart, is fighting a bid by daughter Ms Bianca Rinehart to access the company’s books and records, saying an upcoming High Court decision may change the fate of the case.
Bianca Rinehart has won a small legal victory over her mother, Gina Rinehart, with the Supreme Court permitting, but limiting, her use of subpoenas to obtain documents on the alleged misuse of funds from mining giant Hancock Prospecting.
Applicants in four Federal Court class actions against AMP won’t voluntarily move their cases to the NSW Supreme Court on the invitation of a state judge, leaving a jurisdictional battle to rage on.