A former top judge appointed to decide the first-ever contest to administer a class action settlement has set out his criteria for making the choice, and has warned that giving the firm running a case a monopoly right to dole out the proceeds could lead to higher costs for group members and poorer settlement outcomes.
The judge who rewarded the law firm with the lowest ever GCO proposal with carriage of an $80 million class action this week noted the competitive forces that shaped a “very good deal for group members,” but competition has its downsides, experts say.
The winning, 14 per cent contingency fee proposal by Slater & Gordon in a fight to run a class action against Star Entertainment was not driven by a desire to prevail in the contest and buy market share but was the product of a “reasoned decision” that took into account the law firm’s practice as a whole, a judge has found.
Sydney-based plastic surgeon Daniel Lanzer, who is facing a class action by 1,000 former patients, has been hit with a new lawsuit alleging he performed a negligent liposuction and fat transfer procedure, which left a woman with disfigurement, necrosis and nerve damage.
One law firm has emerged victorious in a four-way contest to run a shareholder class action against Star Entertainment with the lowest proposed group costs order since contingency fees legislation was enacted in Victoria.
Victims of privacy breaches must demonstrate actual loss and damage to be eligible for compensation, according to a judge who has given asylum seekers who secured a ruling from the Privacy Commissioner a second chance at proving loss from the public disclosure of their personal information.
A judge has approved a $50 million settlement in a class action against the Commonwealth Bank over allegedly worthless consumer credit insurance after his concerns about a $2.5 million deduction for Deloitte were allayed.
A judge has questioned an argument by Optus that a report by Deloitte into a major data breach was protected by privilege, saying a press release by the teleco’s boss belied the claim that the provision of legal advice was the report’s chief purpose.
The OAIC has been dragged to court by the law firm that filed a class action-style complaint over the massive Optus data breach, after the privacy commissioner chose a competing representative complaint to move forward.
A group of former Jewish and Israeli students at Brighton Secondary College have won hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation and an apology from the Victorian government after a judge found the school principal failed to address racially-charged bullying and hundreds of cases of swastika graffiti.