Maurice Blackburn

Deciding an “unusually difficult” costs application, a judge has declined to award Monsanto all of its costs for defending a class action alleging its Roundup weed killer is carcinogenic, saying the agrochemical giant should have pushed harder for a split trial. 

The High Court has agreed to step in to resolve division among Australia’s courts on the question of power to make orders that exclude unregistered group members from class action settlements.

Transurban has settled a lawsuit by the former head of legal for its West Gate Tunnel project alleging she was made redundant after complaining about a “culture of fear and intimidation on the project”.

As the Fair Work Commission takes its plan to appoint an administrator to the construction division of the CFMEU to court, a judge has recused himself from hearing the case after acting against the union while at the bar. 

Plaintiff firm Maurice Blackburn will foot the bill for the unsuccessful class action against Monsanto over weed killer Roundup, but the company’s reluctance to split the trial in two has come back to bite it.

The previous head of First Nations strategy of the Collingwood Football Club has brought Fair Work proceedings against their former employer, claiming they were unfairly terminated after making several complaints against CEO Craig Kelly about alleged racially insensitive comments. 

A judge has dismissed a class action alleging Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer is carcinogenic but did not go so far as to say it definitively does not cause cancer, while also dressing down the lawyers for both sides for causing delays in the case.

The judge considering a $272 million settlement in class actions against Uber will appoint a pair of contradictors to advise her on the hundreds of objections lobbed against the agreement.

A shareholder class action against BHP has sought more time to finalise its pleadings ahead of trial, after a judge threw out two class actions against the Commonwealth Bank that also alleged continuous disclosure breaches.

A judge has rejected a law firm’s attempt to update its bid to run class actions against Hyundai and Kia, saying the changes were intended to net the firm a competitive advantage in an upcoming fight for carriage of the class actions and different in substance from its previous position.