If evidence were needed that courts are not rubber stamping class action settlements, the scrutiny of multi-million dollar agreements in 2021 is proof positive that judicial oversight of representative proceedings is robust.
A class action against Western Australia is seeking damages for alleged discrimination of Indigenous Australians detained for unpaid fines.
Class action settlement totals skyrocketed to over $900 million last year, and one law firm negotiated the lion’s share, with $672 million in settlements under its belt.
Bayer has lost its bid to redact the names and contact details of potential group members from discovered documents in a Slater & Gordon-led class action over the drug maker’s Essure contraceptive device.
Dixon Advisory faces a second class action on behalf of investors who claim they suffered significant financial loss when the advice firm and its directors allegedly encouraged the purchase of high risk, high fee securities for their own financial gain.
A judge has rejected an “audacious” attempt by McMillan Shakespeare to recoup a surplus of funds left over after a $9.5 million class action settlement was distributed to registered group members.
Ford has challenged its loss in a class action over its allegedly defective PowerShift transmissions, arguing group members who have had their cars repaired are not entitled to damages.
The applicant in a class action against Fairview Architectural over allegedly combustible cladding is add insurer Vero Insurance as a respondent, after revealing the cladding manufacturer may have $190 million in insurance to cover the class action’s claims.
A litigation funder has told a Senate committee that class action reforms that purport to protect group members by guaranteeing them at least 70 per cent of litigation proceeds is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” that will make it harder to bring claims.
The lead applicant in a superannuation class action against two IOOF units has successfully appealed a decision that barred the case from proceeding under a carveout in Victoria’s Supreme Court Act forbidding class actions involving trust property.