Law firm Slater and Gordon is investigating a potential class action on behalf of sports clubs who claim they missed out on funding from a $100 million grants program overseen by Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie.
A court has found Australia Post breached the employment contract of a compensation manager dismissed after “likely” threats by the CEPU resulted in the cancellation of a project targeting thousands of injured postal workers.
The national secretary of the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining Energy Union has filed an urgent lawsuit against union heavyweight John Setka and 29 other officers accused of poaching union members from a rival division.
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.
National Australia Bank will be hit this year with an estimated $750 million in fines stemming from its fees for no service conduct and potential breaches of money laundering laws, analysts have predicted.
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.
Vocus Group has agreed to settle a shareholder class action over a 2017 profit downgrade, with its insurers footing most of the bill to resolve the proceedings.
Litigation funder IMF Bentham has thrown in the towel in a battle over its cut of a $42 million settlement in a class action against dairy cooperative Murray Goulburn, accepting the Federal Court’s proposed 25 per cent commission rate after initially seeking 32 per cent.
A judge overseeing a consolidated class action against four AMP subsidiaries and two trustees over allegedly excessive superannuation fees has ordered the respondents to coordinate after the lead applicants raised concerns about duplication of work.
Two months after rejecting the deal because the litigation funder’s cut appeared excessive, a judge has approved a $42 million class action settlement with Murray Goulburn while the funder keeps up the fight over its commission.