Clayton Utz

Discount retail chain The Reject Shop has foreshadowed two challenges to an underpayments class action, claiming store managers were not covered by the general retail award and that their allegations have to be run individually. 

A judge has approved a $29 million settlement in a class action against Westpac over ‘junk’ consumer credit insurance, a deal that earns the bank’s customers at least $19.6 million. 

A $47 million settlement in a class action against ANZ — one of three settlements in a series of class actions against the big banks over ‘junk’ consumer credit insurance — was fair and reasonable, a judge has said.

The judge weighing the legal costs sought to be deducted from a $300 million settlement in pelvic mesh class actions against Johnson & Johnson has questioned Shine Lawyers’ bid to make group members pay $32 million in interest incurred on a loan the firm took out at “credit card” rates.

Two directors who were ousted from Bubs Australia and have mounted a challenge to its new leadership have filed proceedings against the infant formula company for breach of workplace rights.

Clifford Chance has added former Clayton Utz competition and consumer law partner Elizabeth Richmond to the firm’s global antitrust team in Sydney.

On the first day of trial in parallel class actions and regulatory proceedings, the Fair Work Ombudsman panned the payment systems adopted by Woolworths and Coles for salaried managers, saying they were “entirely foreign” to the industrial award and that the supermarket giants had “no meaningful proper records” for overtime. 

It was “fundamentally wrong” that AMP Financial Planning paid consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers significantly more to review a court-ordered remediation than was paid to customers who suffered loss after an adviser churned life insurance policies for higher commissions, a judge has said.

The defendants in a trade mark infringement case by the Pokemon Company were the victims of identity theft and were wrongly named in the suit, a court has heard.

The Federal Court’s recently retired top judge has landed on his feet with his appointment by the court as referee to determine which of a group of competing firms should dole out a $300 million settlement that resolved the J&J pelvic mesh class actions.