A judge has ruled that disaster payments cannot be taken into consideration in assessing damages in a long-running class action over the 2011 Queensland floods that destroyed 2,000 homes and claimed 12 lives.
The High Court has ruled that refugees and asylum seekers can sue the government in Federal Court for allegedly breaching its duty of care by failing to provide them with proper medical care while detained in the government’s custody.
A $50 million settlement has been reached in a long-running shareholder class action against defunct vocational training company Vocation that also spawned multiple cross-claims against the failed company’s auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, law firm Johnson Winter & Slattery and individual directors.
Mining giant BHP has lost a fight to keep foreign group members out of a shareholder class action over the Fundao dam failure in Brazil five years ago.
Treasury Wine Estates has accused plaintiffs law firm Maurice Blackburn and barrister Guy Donnellan of “taking advantage” of their privileged position by using evidence discovered in a settled class action to file a second case against the wine maker.
A Victoria Supreme Court judge hearing two competing class actions against Allianz Australia over “junk” insurance has asked the parties for feedback on what she should consider at a hearing on a request for a group costs order, which would allow the plaintiff lawyers to earn a cut of any settlement or judgment, the first such request made since Victoria legalised contingency fees.
A second class action has been filed against insurance giant Allianz seeking compensation for consumers alleged to have been ripped off by “worthless” add-on car insurance.
That a first filed case should be the presumptive winner in a competition between class actions seemed a losing argument before the High Court on Tuesday as the justices weighed a challenge to a ruling picking one among a group of class actions against AMP, but the court also appeared skeptical of the power to hold wide ranging inquiries into the merits of competing cases.
CFMEU official Michael O’Connor has successfully appealed a ruling that threw out his lawsuit seeking to restrain union heavyweight John Setka from poaching members from the union’s manufacturing division.
The eyes of class action lawyers will be on the High Court Tuesday as it hears arguments over a judge’s power to choose a single class action among competing proceedings and what, if anything, should be made of a case’s funding structure and likely returns to group members when picking a winner.