Class Actions

The lead applicant in a class action against Ford over its allegedly defective PowerShift transmission broke down after being accused of lying under oath during a heated virtual cross-examination by the car company’s barrister.

Ardent Leisure, which operates the Dreamworld theme park in Queensland, is facing a shareholder class action over a 2016 tragedy in which four people died following a ride malfunction.

Recent temporary measures by the government making it harder to bring shareholder class actions should be part of permanent reform, ASX has said, and enforcement of Australia’s continuous disclosure rules should rest with the share market operator and ASIC.

Victoria’s lawmakers have passed a fiercely-debated bill that lifts the ban on contingency fees, making the state the first in the country to allow lawyers to take a percentage cut of any judgment or settlement in class actions. 

Queensland’s two largest electricity generators are facing a potential class action over alleged “bidding games” designed to artificially inflate consumers’ electricity bills.

A powerful US business lobbying group should not be allowed to influence Australian politicians as they consider reforms to the country’s class action regime, two leading plaintiffs firms have said. But a lawyer for the group said singling it out was hypocritical given how many overseas litigation funders have hired firms to represent their interests in the current class action debate.

ANZ has denied claims that it sold allegedly worthless insurance to group members in a class action against the banking giant, and has said the policies gave customers “peace of mind”.

A judge has been accused of “very aggressively” raising issues with a barrister for the Federal Government over its failure to amend its defence in a $300 million class action centred on the Commonwealth’s controversial Robodebt scheme to match recent public admissions.

Judges should be given the power to make class closure orders again, defence law firms have told the latest class action inquiry, which comes on the heels of a landmark appeals court ruling that there is no statutory authority to keep unregistered class members out of a group proceeding.

Tens of thousands of Ford cars which contain an allegedly defective transmission system are “lemons”, a court heard on day one of a six-week hearing in a long-running class action against the car maker.