Judges

A law firm has lost its bid to challenge a court order that it join forces with a competing firm in an investor class action against Blue Sky Alternative Investments and auditor EY.

A judge has approved a group costs order with a tiered contingency fee that will guarantee group members at least 72.5 per cent of any returns in a shareholder class action accusing Crown Resorts of lax anti-money laundering compliance over a six-year period.

A psychiatrist that sued HarperCollins for defamation over a book on the use of deep sleep therapy at the Chelmsford Private Hospital in the 1970s has lost his bid to disallow the publisher’s claim that any damage he suffered was mitigated by his bad reputation.

Relatives of race car driver Max Twigg are fighting Pitcher Partners’ bid to have a $127 million lawsuit dismissed as an abuse of process, rejecting the accounting firm’s argument that the proceedings were deliberately delayed for strategic reasons.

A senior barrister at the helm of important insurance test cases has been appointed to the Federal Court bench, along with two state court judges.

Gaming company Konami will cough up $35.9 million dollars to rival company Aristocrat Technologies next year, eight years after a judge found that it had violated Aristocrat’s patent for a slot machine with an improved jackpot feature.

A law firm has dropped plans to bring a second set of class actions alleging Apple and Google engaged in anti-competitive conduct in operating their app stores, but will act as an “agent” for the first-to-file firm.

The High Court won’t hear an appeal by payday loan providers Cigna and BHF seeking to challenge a Full Court judgment that found they can’t dodge the obligations contained in the National Credit Code through their lending model.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has agreed to grant Booktopia more time to pay a $6 million penalty over an alleged misleading refund policy, after the online book retailer suffered a “massive fall” in its share price.

A recent ruling cutting the contingency fee sought by a plaintiff law firm shows competition to run class actions will drive down the percentage payout courts are willing to permit. And as more firms enter the market for a slice of the returns, the downward pressure on profits will only build.