A judge asked to approve a $50 million settlement in a consumer credit insurance class action against the Commonwealth Bank has questioned a $2.5 million deduction for professional services firm Deloitte.
ANZ’s $47 million settlement of a class action over its consumer credit insurance has been given the nod by a judge, who has also approved recovery of the cost of after-the-event insurance held by the law firm running the case.
Slater and Gordon has agreed to consolidate its data breach class action against Medibank with one brought by Baker McKenzie, after the judge overseeing the cases railed against competing class actions.
A judge overseeing a class action over the Optus data breach will order the Information Commissioner to appear in court to explain the “delay and uncertainty” surrounding a number of representative complaints before the OAIC which are hampering the court proceedings.
A judge overseeing four COVID-19 business interruption class actions has questioned a decision by insurers to use ten test cases to resolve the issue of whether they had to indemnify policyholders instead of a class action, which would have been binding.
A judge has warned the NSW government that the court does not make orders “subject to [its] internal policies” after the state failed to comply with orders to hand over documents in a class action over police strip searches.
A judge’s decision that the thumbs-up emoji on a contract constitutes a valid signature is the latest court ruling to find that emojis can amount to acceptance of an offer, and serves as a warning about the downsides of the smiley face and its offspring, experts say.
Three years on from their debut, group costs orders — which entitle law firms to a percentage of any recovery in class actions — have raised a host of novel issues that are keeping lawyers and the court busy.
Wealth manager Colonial First State Investments has agreed to pay $100 million to resolve a consumer class action alleging it charged excessive fees on superannuation accounts, in one of the biggest class action settlements of the year so far.
Beach Energy has struck back at a shareholder class action over alleged misleading earnings projections for its oil and gas reserves in the Cooper Basin, saying it had reasonable grounds for its rosy predictions for production.