Maddens has once again been criticised for its non-compliant costs agreements, three months after receiving similar feedback from a Victoria Supreme Court judge overseeing the firm’s bushfire class actions.
Law firms seeking to bring class actions on a contingency fee basis in the Victorian Supreme Court must seek court approval for the now-legal arrangement as early as possible in the proceeding, the court has said.
Three law firms will represent the insurers in new proceedings launched to resolve a $46 million insurance question delaying settlement of two shareholder class actions against sandlewood producer Quintis, bringing the total number of law firms working on the class action to eight.
A judge has adjourned an interlocutory application because of deficient pleadings in a class action brought against three medical device manufacturers and a former doctor on behalf of thousands of women who claim to have suffered lifelong complications from pelvic mesh implants.
The company that operates the Newmarch House nursing home in Sydney is facing a possible class action after a coronavirus outbreak at the facility resulted in the deaths of 19 residents.
AMP’s chief executive Francesco De Ferrari has gone on the offensive against class actions in Australia, saying litigation funders were driving up the cost of doing business, resulting in job losses and increasing costs of financial advice.
Shine Lawyers has been given the go ahead to use two reports produced in three settled PFAS class actions as evidence in its latest case over the Defence Department’s firefighting foam, with a judge saying any implied undertaking not to re-use the material lost force when the information became public.
A contradictor investigating alleged professional misconduct on the part of the legal team and funder behind a class action against failed Banksia Securities will subpoena the bank records of deceased class action lawyer and funder Mark Elliott and associated companies. Meanwhile, the barrister for the lead applicant has returned her brief on the eve of trial, on the advice of the bar ethics committee.
Gloria Jeans’ owner Retail Food Group has avoided enforcement action by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission after an investigation sparked by last year’s damning parliamentary report into the franchise sector.
Owners of units in Sydney’s Opal Tower have filed a lawsuit against the NSW Government and builder Icon after allegedly discovering more than 500 additional defects in the troubled building.