The lead applicants in seven class actions against auto manufacturers over explosive Takata airbags have criticised the courts for losing their way in ensuring justice is done, in a landmark challenge to class closure orders made in the cases.
US litigation powerhouse Quinn Emanuel has lured a leading patent attorney from Allens to grow its Sydney office.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s case alleging STA Travel hit customers with $1 million in hidden fees and commissions through an add-on that purported to cover the cost of flight changes will go straight to a penalties hearing after the student travel agent made admissions.
A year after Commissioner Kenneth Hayne released his scathing report, companies in the financial services sector are still facing fresh class actions over conduct aired at the banking royal commission, and the pace has even picked up in recent months.
Litigation funder IMF Bentham has shrugged off concerns about the High Court’s recent ruling on common fund orders, telling investors that it’s in a position to take over some class actions from funders daunted by the prospect of bookbuilding.
The applicants in a group of class actions over defective Takata airbags are pushing ahead with a challenge to the power of the NSW Supreme Court to issue class closure orders in the aftermath of a High Court decision shooting down common fund orders, a fight that could send the cases back to the High Court.
Contact details of shareholders provided by GetSwift to the firm running a class action should not be used to recruit group members now that the common fund order in the case has been quashed, the logistics company has told a court.
German cladding manufacturer 3A Composites has again threatened to call for the de-classing of a class action brought over allegedly combustible cladding, slamming the case against it as “simply shambolic” and the conduct of the applicant as “utterly irresponsible”.
Judges have no power to order all class action members to pay a proportion of a litigation funder’s commission out of their share of a settlement, the High Court has ruled in a landmark judgment that deals a huge defeat to litigation funders.
The High Court is poised this week to issue its judgment in a case challenging the validity of common fund orders in class actions, a ruling that could see litigation funding commission rates creep back up after hitting record lows.