The Morrison Government has extended a temporary change to the continuous disclosure rules to give companies more wriggle room in updating shareholders during the coronavirus pandemic by six months, saying the change had allowed shareholders to remain informed while preventing “opportunistic class actions”.
A judge has slammed the parties in the Robodebt class action for sparring over the pleadings, one week after the class was given leave to add a claim for exemplary damages and allege knowledge of the program’s unlawfulness on the part of several government officials and federal minister Alan Tudge.
An upcoming legal battle over whether counterclaims can be brought against non-party group members in a class action against a unit of recruiter Tandem could hamper bookbuilding efforts by making class actions less attractive to group members, an expert has told Lawyerly.
A shareholder class action against Vocation that has spanned five years and spawned multiple cross claims against the failed training company’s auditor, law firm and individual directors, has reached an in-principle settlement.
The Andrews government is facing another COVID-19 related class action, this one on behalf of farm operators financially stung by Victorian and South Australian border closures.
Insurers of sandalwood producer Quintis have told a court that a rectification suit brought by the applicants in two class actions seeking to increase D&O coverage by $40 million, “makes no sense”.
Describing as “preposterous” the prospect of running a six-week trial in a class action against Crown Resorts from her kitchen table with three children at home, the Melbourne-based barrister for the lead applicant is again urging the Federal Court to declare the case a priority matter.
A judge has given the green light for the applicants in the Robodebt class action to file an amended statement of claim on the eve of trial that adds a claim for exemplary damages and drags five government employees into the proceedings.
Common fund orders are again under scrutiny in a class action which was at the centre of the High Court’s decision to strike down the orders, with a NSW Supreme Court judge sending back to the appeals court the question of whether the orders can be made at settlement.
A second class action has been launched against the Andrews Government over stage four restrictions imposed on Victorians, alleging failures to manage the state’s hotel quarantine program were directly to blame for the second wave of COVID-19 cases.