Fearing passage of a contentious bill in parliament that threatens to curb open class actions, plaintiffs law firms and funders have raced to court with new cases in the past two weeks.
Two law firms are seeking court approval to drop class actions brought on behalf of allegedly misclassified casual coal miners, in light of a High Court decision that “radically” decreased their chances of success.
Spurred by the Banksia class action scandal, the federal government has implemented new regulations requiring litigation funders to manage conflicts of interest that arise when the lawyers acting on a class action have a “material financial interest” in the funder that’s running it.
The federal government is facing a class action over alleged biosecurity breaches that led to the 2016 outbreak of white spot disease in South-East Queensland, which decimated the regionās commercial prawn industry.
The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has been hit with a class action for having āunfairā terms in its credit card contracts that allegedly gave the bank the right to charge account holders retrospective interest.
Professional services giant PricewaterhouseCoopers has hit back at a class action over a $50 million prospectus for Axsesstoday, filing a cross-claim against the asset finance lender and saying it ātakes no responsibilityā for allegedly defective offer documents.
Victoria’s Alfred and St Vincent’s hospitals are the targets of a new class action filed on behalf of junior doctors alleging they were not paid for unrostered work that included admitting patients and attending to medical emergencies.
Apple and Google’s legal woes in Australia are set to worsen, with a leading class action firm preparing to file class actions against the Silicon Valley giants for alleged competition and consumer law violations.
Japanese car maker Mitsubishi Motors has been hit with a class action for allegedly making misleading fuel efficiency representations on over 70,000 Triton Utes sold in Australia since 2015.
Former Slater & Gordon managing director Andrew Grech has told the Federal Court he regretted his “catastrophic error” in approving the $1.2 billion acquisition of Quindell’s professional services division, which resulted in massive losses for the plaintiffs law firm.