Last year was an exciting one for class action lawyers, with monumental court decisions on competing cases, cross-jurisdictional spats, proportionality in settlements and the power of judges to decide how a recovery is distributed. Here, top class action litigators tell us what the most significant rulings of 2018 were and why the decisions will continue to matter this year.
Johnson & Johnson unit Ethicon is seeking a class closure order in the pelvic mesh class action, as the company prepares to enter mediation.
The law firms that challenged a ruling staying their cases against GetSwift gave the Full Federal Court a chance to guide judges managing competing class actions, but they can’t avoid paying their opponents’ legal costs because the court happened to seize the opportunity.
A judge has slammed an amended pleading in a class action against Zoetis by horse owners who claim the pharmaceutical company made misleading claims about its Hendra virus drug, saying it presents an “insuperable difficulty”.
A law firm on the losing end of a landmark ruling over competing shareholder class actions against GetSwift has argued that a proposed opt-out notice to group members should wait until after its High Court appeal. And the judge will let the firm make its argument, after hearing that the winning law firm has been, in his words, “sitting on its hands”.
Law firm Squire Patton Boggs is taking a fight over a ruling that shut down its shareholder class action against logistics startup GetSwift to the High Court.
Maurice Blackburn stands to walk away with $5.8 million for its work on a consumer class action against Cash Converters that resulted in a $16.4 million settlement.
The two funders paying for a shareholder class action against facility services company Spotless Group want 25 percent of any net settlement or judgment in the case, a rate that mirrors the commission approved in a common fund order now at the centre of a constitutional challenge.
Squire Patton Boggs has refused a request by rival Phi Finney McDonald for the details of group members it signed up to its now stayed shareholder class action against GetSwift, a court has learned, in the latest show of resistance by the losing law firm.
An expert witness in an investor class action against Fitch Ratings over toxic financial products is no expert at all, the lead applicant told the court in contesting the admissibility of the expert’s evidence.