Norton Rose Fulbright

A judge has approved a $12 million payment to the funder of two franchisee class actions against 7-Eleven, even as the funder plans to appeal a decision rejecting its bid for a common fund order for a $24.5 million commission.

HWL Ebsworth has been found negligent in advising on a joint venture contract for an ambitious Sydney-based land development, which allegedly lost the law firm’s former client $130 million. 

Technology company Swift Networks has been taken to court for alleged bid rigging and price fixing in the tender process for IT and communications equipment supply to five Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals mining sites in WA’s Pilbara region.

The High Court killed off all common fund orders, not just the kind sought at the start of a class action, a judge has said as he cut in half the payout for a litigation funder bankrolling two franchisee class actions against 7-Eleven.

A judge has blessed a law firm’s $16.6 million legal bill for running two franchisee class actions against 7-Eleven despite a contradictor’s argument that it had a “troubling” practice of deferring its fees to benefit the funder that bankrolled the cases. 

The Western Australia government has foreshadowed a strike-out application just one month after being hit with a class action on behalf of detainees in the state’s detention centres.

A former McDonald’s franchisee has lost his challenge to a privilege claim by the fast food giant in his lawsuit alleging he was wrongly dropped after questioning his neighbour’s Indigenous identity in a 2019 viral video recording an altercation over an Aboriginal flag.

United Petroleum has been hit with a class action on behalf of franchisees who allege they suffered loss when the petrol giant installed loss-making Pie Face stores at its franchise sites.

A former Norton Rose Fulbright digital marketing manager has dropped her appeal of dismissed claims against two of the firm’s human resources managers in a case alleging she was fired after she complained of bullying and sex discrimination by her supervisor. 

An appeals court has dismissed an appeal from two contractors who worked on Chevron’s Gorgon gas field project who allege they were underpaid over $130 million by the energy giant.