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.
A multi-million dollar settlement has been reached in a shareholder class action against private training company Ashley Services over its $67 million tumble two years ago.
Treasury Wine Estates can’t claim its legal costs in defending against two stayed shareholder class actions because the terms of a settlement in a third class action barred the company from recovering anything from group members in related cases, a court has heard.
A judge has chosen a winner in a battle of law firms vying to run a massive shareholder class action against BHP over the fatal collapse of a dam at its Brazilian mine, saying the funding arrangement behind the successful case would best serve class members.
Hytera Communications has been ordered to hand over source code that Motorola Solutions claims was stolen by three employees who jumped ship between the companies.
A judge has pushed the Australian Securities and Investments Commission into mediation with two NAB wealth management units in its case over $100 million in fees for no service, despite the regulator’s contention that mediation is not the best way to move the case forward.
Law firm Johnson Winter & Slattery has filed its defence against a cross claim by accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers in a shareholder class action over the collapse of Vocation, pointing to an email that shows the training company was advised of its disclosure obligations to the market.
Hytera Communications has won its bid to have a new copyright case brought against it by rival Motorola SolutionsĀ heard separately from a patent infringement trial scheduled to begin in July next year.
The ACCC has expressed concerns about the proposed merger of telecoms TPG and Vodafone, saying the deal could substantially lessen competition and lead to higher-priced mobile plans.
Seven class actions against auto makers that sold cars equipped with defective Takata airbags can allege the car makers’ silence constituted misleading and deceptive conduct.