Running a law firm is not without risk, chief among them staring down a lawsuit by a client, an ex-partner or employee, even a rival firm. Last year, Australian firms faced numerous actions alleging everything from sex discrimination to negligence.
Two Deutsche Bank subsidiaries have filed Federal Court proceedings against Spain seeking enforcement of a €59.6 million ($96.3 million) award for losses incurred as a result of changes in the country’s renewable regulatory framework.
Companies and other defendants forked over big sums last year to settle more than 20 class actions, with a total of at least $734 million being paid out. Here are the top 10 class action settlements and the law firms and funders that negotiated them.
A judge has given his seal of approval to a $29 million settlement that resolves a class action over Radio Rentals’ Rent, Try, $1 Buy scheme alleging customers were kept in the dark about the true cost of their rentals.
A former Norton Rose Fulbright partner has lost his bid to block King & Wood Mallesons and two barristers from representing the law firm in a long-running feud over his termination, with an appeals court calling his allegations against the legal team “unfounded and misconceived”.
Dam operators Seqwater and Sunwater have not ruled out appealing a judgment that found they, along with the state of Queensland, were negligent in the 2011 floods in the Southeast region of the state that left over 2,000 homes destroyed.
A Federal Court judge has frowned on a bid to transfer 12 individual cases over allegedly defective pelvic mesh to various state and territory courts, saying the manner in which the cases had been brought reminded him of the 1990’s when “mobile phones resembled house bricks” and suggesting the cases could be brought as a class action.
Google has come out in defence of its privacy disclosures to Android mobile users in the face of landmark legal action by the ACCC, saying the consumer regulator’s allegations of misleading conduct rely on an “artificial and incorrect” account of the way it informs users of the collection and use of personal location data.
The State of Queensland will not appeal a ruling that found it, as well as the operators of two Queensland dams, were negligent in the 2011 floods in the Southeast region of the state that left over 2,000 homes destroyed.
A judge has shot down a bid by class action applicants to block 7-Eleven from seeking litigation releases from franchisees on contract renewal, saying there was no evidence the convenience store giant had acted unlawfully.