From a record-setting funder’s cut to the first call for ‘“proportionality”, last year saw a number of groundbreaking judgments approving class action settlements worth more than half a billion dollars. Here are the 10 biggest settlements of 2018, and the law firms and funders that negotiated them.
Labour on-hire and recruitment company CoreStaff is facing a class action alleging it violated the consumer laws by luring workers to Australia from Papua New Guinea with the promise of long-term work, only to terminate their employment agreements less than three years after they relocated.
A judge has signed off on an application to set aside a portion of a $30 million settlement in a class action over the 2004 Palm Island riots for financial counselling for registered group members, saying the court had the power to make the landmark order.
7-Eleven has lost its bid to use a confidential bulletin sent to class members via WhatsApp as defence evidence in an ongoing franchisee class action, with a judge rejecting the company’s claims the document was no longer shielded by legal professional privilege.