Class Actions

Nine will pay $3 million to settle a class action over its coverage of litigation related to the 2004 Palm Island riots, it has been revealed, after the class action failed to suppress the settlement sum.

The lead applicants are seeking to drop a class action against the Northern Territory government over its alleged failure to properly fund essential health services and interpreting services in remote Indigenous communities.

A class action on behalf of Axsesstoday bondholders has reached a settlement with accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers, with a court hearing that group members will get almost 50 per cent of the proceeds. 

Sydney-based plastic surgeon Daniel Lanzer and several of his associates have objected to a class action’s eighth attempt at getting its claims over allegedly negligent cosmetic procedures right, saying the plaintiffs were engaged in a “continuing cycle of propagating versions” of their case.

Previously noting the rate was “well outside the median range”, a judge has made an order granting the second highest contingency fee to a law firm running a shareholder class action against vehicle company FleetPartners Group, saying he was satisfied the group costs order was appropriate and necessary.

A class action solicitor has paid a judgment debt of $50,000 ahead of a sequestration hearing over allegedly unpaid barrister’s fees from work on a class action against payments provider Tyro. But a court heard Tuesday the lawyer still faces a claim for unpaid superannuation by a former employee. 

Shareholders of Commonwealth Bank have lodged expected appeals challenging a decision tossing their class actions over alleged lax money laundering compliance, giving the Full Federal Court a chance to clarify when companies must disclose regulatory investigations.

A judge has ordered Transport for NSW to only pay 65 per cent of the costs of a class action over Sydney’s $3 billion light rail construction, finding it was not inappropriate to apportion costs even though the plaintiffs were largely successful.

Counsel for Worley in a nine-year-old shareholder class action that is set for another Full Court appeal has foreshadowed a possible recusal application against the judges who heard the first appeal.

The Tasmanian government has agreed to settle a class action on behalf of former child detainees of the state’s Ashley Youth Detention Centre alleging decades of systemic negligence by management.