A judge has discontinued a class action by Victorian councils against insurer JLT Risk Solutions, but has departed from the decisions of two other judges by ruling the suspension of the time limit for bringing the councils’ claims will immediately be lifted.Â
Judges were not afraid to vent their spleen in 2023, but lawyers were not the only object of judicial scorn last year, as judges waded into public discourse and sounded off over issues including complex legislation, media reports, famous social media commentators, and the involvement of government departments in legal proceedings.Â
A judge has cut law firm Levitt Robinsonâs costs in a class action against retirement village provider Aveo, finding the solicitors were âseriously derelictâ in serving their evidence on loss and ran up over $1 million in avoidable costs.
Two law firms running competing class actions against Qantas over flight cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic have agreed to cooperate after a judge took them to task for revising their funding positions in the lead up to a courtroom battle.
A judge’s decision to chop $810,000 from the funder’s cut of a settled class action against Westpac sounds a warning to class action litigators that when it comes to determining the size of a commission, case budgets matter.
A judge has told the law firm that has taken over a class action against Philips Electronics over recalled sleep apnea machines to take its time when amending the pleading, which he said was not the “finest piece of work” he’d ever seen.
A judge has given the green light to a $11 million settlement in a class action against retirement village provider Aveo, but reserved his decision about whether a contested amount of over $1 million should go to group members or the law firm that brought the case.
A $29.95 million settlement resolving a superannuation class action against two Westpac units has won court approval. The judge overseeing the case has also indicated he will OK the litigation funder’s commission but only some of its after-the-event insurance premium.
The litigation funder that backed a class action brought on behalf of Indigenous workers seeking to recover unpaid wages wants a 20 per cent commission from the settlement. But it faces pushback from the government of Western Australia, which has agreed to pay group members up to $165 million.
A judge has approved the first settlement in dozens of negligence cases against the Minister for Home Affairs on behalf of refugees detained by the Australian government on the island of Nauru.