A judge has signed off on settlements in two class actions against a defunct Sydney-based financial advisory firm by a group of Chinese investors over a property investment and visa scheme that allegedly saw group members lose $30 million in funds.
A unit of Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay around $40 million in legal costs to the lead applicants in a class action over pelvic mesh implants after a judge dismissed the company’s bid to stay the costs until after a high profile appeal is heard next year.
A News Corp subsidiary has hit back at a defamation lawsuit by a Sydney-based solicitor claiming two Daily Telegraph articles implied he was too old and deaf to represent clients, filing a defence denying that the imputations were conveyed.
A judge has signalled his intention to sign off on a $138 million settlement in a class action against IAG and approve a common fund order that gives the litigation funder a $34.5 million commission, but an application by the funder for reimbursement of after-the-event insurance has been refused.
A judge has approved an application to join the insurer of a former doctor into a class action seeking compensation for defective pelvic mesh implants and wants to fast-track the matter for trial next year.
A Federal Court judge taking over a shareholder class action against IOOF Holdings from a recent High Court appointment has lamented the lack of progress in the case, which has been ongoing for nine months.
The applicant in the settled Robodebt class action has warned a judge he will have a “dispute on [his] hands” if the government presses an argument that law firm Gordon Legal is not entitled to some of its legal fees — an argument the court was told would put the Commonwealth in breach of the settlement deed.
The columnist behind two allegedly defamatory Australian Financial Review articles has told the court that he believed former Blue Sky managing director Dr Elaine Stead was “cretinously stupid” because of her “astonishingly ridiculous” behavior on social media at the time of the company’s collapse.
Convenience store chain 7-Eleven has asked the High Court to find courts do not have the power to make common fund orders at settlement or judgment in a class action, one year after the High Court ruled common fund orders could not be made in the early part of a representative proceeding.
Nine-owned Fairfax has denied that two Australian Financial Review articles implied that venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead “deliberately” destroyed capital, as it seeks to significantly reduce the defamation case it faces.