Trial in a shareholder class action against engineering company WorleyParsons will be heard by a new judge in late August, six months after it was unexpectedly vacated.
The Chief Justice of the Federal Court wants four referees to weigh what’s expected to be voluminous expert evidence in three class actions against the Commonwealth of Australia over exposure to allegedly toxic foam used on a government military bases, saying with 60 class actions pending in the Federal Court, devoting a single judge to the case for months on end should be a “mechanism of last resort”.
Wealth manager IOOF is facing a shareholder class action alleging it failed to tell investors that misconduct aired at the Banking Royal Commission would put it in the crosshairs of Australia’s financial regulator.
The trial in a much anticipated shareholder class action against engineering firm WorleyParsons scheduled to commence this week has hit a roadblock, with a last minute change in the judge that will hear the matter.
Two rulings Friday keeping alive the common fund order are a ringing endorsement by the courts of the important role that litigation funders play in class actions, experts say, and have paved the way for more funded post-Hayne consumer litigation against banks and other financial services firms this year.
Common fund orders in class actions are legal and not unconstitutional, six judges found Friday after a history-making joint sitting of two appeals courts.
A state judge has ordered the litigation funders behind a group of federal class actions against AMP to pay the legal costs of their failed transfer applications, saying while he could not make the applicants pay, he could compel the funders to cough up the money.
Judgments in two appeals challenging the legality of common fund orders issued by courts in class actions will be handed down this week, and the rulings could have a profound effect on how class actions are run by lawyers and their funders in the future.
Foxtel and Optus contractor BSA may be hit with a class action on behalf of telecommunications technicians allegedly engaged as independent contractors so the company could avoid paying them certain entitlements.
Gladstone Ports has won access to draft expert reports prepared by Clyde & Co in its $100 million class action against the Queensland government owned organisation, with a judge ruling the documents were not privileged despite their not being used in the case.