Search giant Google may face a class action by disgruntled business owners seeking compensation for loss and damage they claim has been caused by anonymous negative online reviews.
With Victoria set to pass legislation permitting law firms to charge contingency fees, experts have raised fears of an exodus of class actions from other states and the federal system. But the Federal Court, which hears about two-thirds of Australia’s representative proceedings, is not likely to surrender easily.
The lead applicant in a shareholder class action against laser technology company Arasor will walk away with a fraction of the approximately $508,000 in legal and other bills it has racked up in disputes with the ATO and funder International Litigation Partners following the approval of a $19.25 million class action settlement more than two years ago.
The High Court’s recent ruling putting a stop to the practice of judges issuing common fund orders at the early stages of class action proceedings, while “not a good development”, wasn’t the end of the class action regime as we know it, a Federal Court judge has said.
The entrepreneur who funded one of two settled Murray Goulburn class actions will defend his $10.5 million cut of the $37.5 million settlement, a commission that is under scrutiny by a contradictor appointed by the judge overseeing the case.
Crown Resorts has successfully challenged a ruling allowing law firm Maurice Blackburn to communicate with 18 formerly jailed employees to gather evidence in its shareholder class action against the casino giant.
A common fund order granting the litigation funder behind the stolen wages class action 20 per cent of a $190 million settlement remains in force after a High Court judgment that did away with such orders, a judge has found.
Mortgage lending and investment company RMBL has agreed to pay $3 million to settle a class action alleging it charged excessive fees on loans and made misleading representations under its contributory mortgage fund scheme.
Companies and other defendants forked over big sums last year to settle more than 20 class actions, with a total of at least $734 million being paid out. Here are the top 10 class action settlements and the law firms and funders that negotiated them.
Litigation funder IMF Bentham has thrown in the towel in a battle over its cut of a $42 million settlement in a class action against dairy cooperative Murray Goulburn, accepting the Federal Court’s proposed 25 per cent commission rate after initially seeking 32 per cent.