Herbert Smith Freehills

The NSW Court of Appeal has said it has no power to exclude group members who do not sign up to a class action from participating in a settlement, upholding a controversial decision that the Full Federal Court said was “plainly wrong”. 

A funder that bankrolled a class action that was stayed against Dixon Advisory has argued it should receive $969,000 from a $16 million settlement reached in the competing proceedings that went ahead, saying its costs were spent to protect group members’ interests.

Uber has hit back at claims that it engaged in corporate espionage by using a software program called SurfCam to lure drivers away from rival GoCatch, saying its actions could not be compared to burglary because the material it obtained was not confidential.

Lawyers at Herbert Smith Freehills panicked as their client Uber obfuscated a regulator’s investigation during an alleged unlawful conspiracy to launch illegal rideshare operations, a trial has heard. 

A judge has approved a settlement in a shareholder class action against livestock exporter Wellard that grants a 34 per cent cut for group members, saying that investors had agreed to the lawyers and funder receiving the “lion’s share”. 

The state of Victoria has won its bid to prevent lawyers for a class action over Victoria’s COVID-19 hotel quarantine debacle from proofing lay witnesses, ahead of a criminal trial against the Department of Health, which is due to start in May.

Aussie Skips is fighting a court’s ruling that imposed a $3.5 million penalty against the waste company and sentenced its boss to an 18-month intensive corrections order, in a criminal cartel case that also implicated Bingo Industries.

A five-year-old class action against BHP over the collapse of a Brazilian dam is seeking to amend the group definition following a judgment limiting the class size, but the mining company says it should not be punished for the applicant’s pleading mistake.

Westpac subsidiary BT Funds Management and Tal Life Insurance have foreshadowed applications to strike out the pleadings of a class action alleging superannuation customers were overcharged for insurance coverage. 

A judge has set aside subpoenas in a class action against Mercedes-Benz over alleged emissions cheating seeking material to identify group members and clarify the composition of the class, finding they were not issued for a legitimate forensic purpose.