The $92 million payout to two funders that financed the recently settled S&P Global class actions shows the need for continued scrutiny of litigation funding agreements, experts say, but whether it is a sign of windfalls to come or is a ghost of commission’s past is another question.
Concerns that the proposed acquisition of Sirtex Medical by a Chinese private equity firm would leave the company with insufficient funds to cover a settlement or judgement in a class action were eased Wednesday, after a barrister said the takeover would leave the company with just under $1 billion in assets.
The two directors of biodegradable coffee pod startup iCapsulate have been ordered into mediation to try to resolve a feud over whether to liquidate the company, a year after it was offered $2.5 million by an investor on reality TV show Shark Tank.
The decision by a federal judge to refuse calls for a confidentiality order keeping under wraps S&P Global’s massive class action settlement is a welcome one, experts say, and a preview of judgments to come.
S&P Global will pay $215 million to settle six consolidated class actions brought by investors over toxic CDOs, a figure revealed by the Federal Court on Thursday despite calls that it be kept secret.
A $3 million settlement in the shareholder class action against the directors of failed mining company Kagara has been approved, with a Federal Court judge saying the amount is fair and reasonable despite two-thirds of it going to the lawyers and funder that brought the case.
The Full Federal Court has handed Johnson & Johnson unit Ethicon a victory in the class action over its allegedly defective vaginal mesh devices, partly reversing a judge’s decision that expanded the class post-trial.
Companies breaching the Australian Consumer Law will be hit with higher fines after the Federal Parliament on Thursday passed a bill that aligns the maximum penalties with fines for competition law violations.
Fundraising company Appco Group Australia has failed in its bid to put a massive sham contracting class action in the Federal Court on hold while it fights a ruling that let the case continue as a representative proceeding.
After signalling last month they were close to resolving their trade mark dispute, real estate companies RE/MAX and Resimax have been been given one last chance — and one more week — to settle.