A judge overseeing the Montara oil spill class action has found the Federal Court’s broad discretion under the class action regime is “outflanked” by the need to give group members a chance to opt out. But resolving that question on Thursday — which has divided the courts — caused a further wrinkle ahead of a hearing to weigh a settlement in the case.
The Albanese government has removed provisions from sex harassment legislation that passed the senate on Friday which would have forced parties to bear their own costs in harassment litigation, after dozens of lawyers expressed “deep concern”.
A judge has questioned a tiered contingency fee arrangement in a proposed group costs order by the law firm running a shareholder class action against Crown, asking whether the lower-end percentages were “meaningless”.
Already facing one Australian class action for cheating on diesel emissions tests, Toyota unit Hino is the subject of a fresh class action probe announced Tuesday.
In one of the year’s biggest class action settlements, PTTEP Australasia has agreed to pay $192.5 million to settle a representative action over a 2009 oil spill that affected 15,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers.
Sydney advisory and accounting firm Bentleys has been hit with a lawsuit by a former HR adviser alleging sexual assault, harassment and “exhibitionist and shocking behaviour” by a senior executive which left her with post-traumatic stress disorder.
PTTEP Australasia has settled a class action over one of Australia’s largest oil spills, more than a year after a judge ruled that the oil exploration company breached its duty of care to 15,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers and damaged their livelihoods.
Apple has foreshadowed a challenge in the event two law firms seek to work together on a consolidated class action that alleges both Apple and Google engaged in anti-competitive conduct in operating their app stores.
ANZ and Westpac have failed in their bid for a contradictor to weigh in on a contingency fee bid in two class actions, as the law firm that lost the first ever application for a group costs order tries again.
The former chief executive of Commonwealth Bank has told a court internal auditors raised issues with CBA’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing compliance four years before AUSTRAC took action that saw the bank’s share price plummet.