A judge has rejected a bid by WA businessman and former Perth Glory owner Antony Sage to uncover external legal advice provided to the tax office in a dispute over an audit that went to the AAT, finding that reliance by the Tribunal on the material could endanger its independence.
The Full Federal Court has answered a question vexing the court for the past four years, ruling that class action judges have the power to make common fund orders at settlement that allow litigation funders to reap a percentage commission beyond their contractual entitlement.
The Full Federal Court’s finding that the High Court did not extinguish the power of judges to make common fund orders on approval of class action settlements is the latest milestone in the evolution of Australian class action jurisprudence, experts say.
A judge has declined a union’s bid to throw out an employee class action against McDonald’s after the Full Federal Court confirmed that employee class actions are not precluded by the Fair Work Act.
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.