A Federal Court judge’s endorsement of the novel idea of a ‘solicitors’ common fund order’ may reverse the trend of class action lawyers running to the Supreme Court of Victoria, where they can earn a contingency fee, to file their cases.
With bated breath class action litigators and funders have waited for this day, when the Full Federal Court decides the question of power to make common fund orders at settlement. They aren’t the final arbiters, but the judges’ ruling may be no less important for that.
Opal Tower engineer WSP has succeeded in claiming the costs of a class action from insurers for builder Icon, with a judge finding engineers were not excluded from the policy’s coverage for subcontractors.
A traditional custodian has won her bid to halt seismic blasting for Woodside’s Scarborough gas project off the coast of Western Australia, in a legal challenge similar to one that put Santos’ $4.7 billion Barossa project on ice.
Telco Swift Networks has been hit with a $1.2 million penalty for bid rigging and price fixing in the tender process for supplying IT and communications equipment for three Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals mining projects in WA’s Pilbara region.
A self-represented aged pensioner has lost his bid to revive a class action against the Department of Social Services over its real estate asset testing for pensions, with a judge saying that a legal practitioner must represent group members.
A court has signed off on a settlement in a six-year-old class action against mining services company Thiess by fly-in fly-out workers recruited for construction of a Woodside Energy LNG plant in WA’s Pilbara region.
A $438,000 settlement in a class action accusing a unit of engineering company CIMIC of underpaying casual aluminium construction and manufacturing workers has won court approval.
Wealth management firm Colonial First State has lost its bid to shield emails with internal counsel about investment options for its FirstChoice super fund after a judge found a class action applicant had joint legal professional privilege.
A former director of Australian Mines has copped at $70,000 penalty in ASIC proceedings accusing him of making false and misleading representations at mining investment conferences in 2018.