Ken Cush & Associates

An administrator has won $1 million more in costs for distributing a class action settlement, but a judge warned any ‘overshoot’ might not be borne by group members.

A class action on behalf of public housing tenants who were allegedly forced to relocate is facing a bid for summary judgment by the ACT government, which claims it is not the correct respondent.

The lead applicant in a class action over the alleged unlawful detention of 240 Indonesian children and the Commonwealth are locked in a battle over the construction of a $27.5 million settlement reached last year.

The attorney-general of South Australia wants to intervene in a High Court appeal of a ruling that put Judge Salvatore Vasta on the hook for a man’s false imprisonment, saying the judge was not entitled to immunity but that police and correctional officers were.

The ACT government has argued the Federal Court cannot hear a class action brought on behalf of public housing tenants who were allegedly forced to relocate.

Companies and government entities paid out less to settle class actions in 2023 than in the previous two years, with no mega settlements hitting their pocketbooks.

A $27.5 million settlement reached in a class action over the alleged unlawful detention of 240 Indonesian children has won court approval, but the applicant’s legal costs remain subject to negotiations.

The state of Queensland has urged the High Court to step in after a Federal Circuit and Family Court judge was held personally liable for a man’s false imprisonment.

A man awarded $300,000 after he was unlawfully imprisoned for contempt has won his legal costs from the judge who jailed him. But a court has rejected his bid to recoup the costs paid to a damages expert in his case, finding he gave her “incomplete, inaccurate and unreliable” instructions.

The High Court has refused to throw out a personal injury case over 55-year-old child sexual abuse claims, despite the death of the alleged perpetrator and most relevant witnesses, saying a permanent stay is a “measure of last resort”.