The power of courts to choose a single winner from a contest of competing class actions is not the likely target of the High Court in taking up a challenge to last year’s beauty parade of shareholder proceedings against AMP, but the analysis behind the decision to award Maurice Blackburn the prize could face scrutiny, experts say.
The High Court has agreed to weigh in on a decision last year to pick Maurice Blackburn’s case as the winner of a beauty parade of shareholder class actions against AMP over the wealth manager’s controversial fees for no service.
Lamenting that he now has less flexibility to manage commission rates, a judge has called for legislative intervention to give courts authority to regulate funding arrangements at the outset of class actions, a power stripped from them by the High Court late last year.
Union heavyweight John Setka has successfully defended a case brought by CFMEU boss Micheal O’Connor seeking orders restraining Setka from poaching members from the union’s manufacturing division.
Treasury Wine Estates has said it will vigorously defend a shareholder class action filed this week over a recent earnings downgrade, one of two possible class actions the wine producer could be facing over the announcement.
A judge has denied a bid by the applicant in a massive class action against ride-sharing giant Uber to amend the group definition to include successors and assignees of those with claims, saying the request was made too late and that it was not clear who exactly would be included in the new group.
The COVID-19 pandemic has opened the door to a host of potential class actions involving claims of government negligence, employment law, product liability and consumer law, one legal expert has said.
After almost five years of litigation, a Federal Court judge said he will approve a $127.1 million settlement of five class actions against Volkswagen over the diesel emissions scandal, but appeared unwilling to sign off on a 25 per cent uplift in fees sought by one of the plaintiffs firms.
A judge has signed off on a $42.5 million settlement of a class action against Cash Converters, brought on behalf of consumers that look out personal loans, in a move that will see the plaintiffs firm behind the case pocket $12.4 million.
A fight to lead a class action against Monsanto over its allegedly cancer-causing weedkiller Roundup is on foot, with a third class action soon to be filed against the chemical giant.