Engineering company UGL Limited has denied wrongdoing in a class action on behalf of casual aluminium construction and manufacturing workers who were allegedly underpaid for over three years, saying they were, in fact, overpaid.
Labour on-hire and recruitment company CoreStaff has settled a class action alleging it lured workers to Australia from Papua New Guinea with the promise of long-term work, only to terminate their employment agreements less than three years after they relocated.
A group of litigation funders will launch a major advertising campaign starting Monday against proposed legislation that puts a ceiling on the legal fees and commission they can recover from class actions.
National Australia Bank has been served with a $78 million class action over the collapse of Walton Construction, three months after the case was stalled for funding complications.
Embattled wealth advisor Dixon Advisory has filed for administration, saying its potential liability in two class actions and a $7.2 million penalty it agreed to pay in ASIC proceedings mean it is likely to become insolvent in the future.
A class action against franchise giant Retail Food Group wants to head off any challenge to its funding agreement with a court order that the financing arrangement is exempt from controversial regulations requiring group proceedings to be run as managed investment schemes.
The litigation funder behind a scam to defraud members of a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities has entered liquidation, and the funder’s two surviving directors will be among potential targets of attempts to recover money to pay a $21.7 million court judgment.
The federal Attorney General’s Department has faced calls to reveal the constitutional heads of power behind the latest class action reform bill that aims to cap the amount of fees and commission lawyers and funders can earn.
AUSTRAC has expanded into investigation into Star Entertainment’s compliance with anti-money laundering laws, two months after a third law firm announced a shareholder class action investigation into the casino operator on the back of damning media reports.
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.