Class Actions

A judge has rejected AFL great Phil Krakouer’s request for extensive game footage before putting on an amended claim in a racial vilification class action against the league, which is expected to bring five clubs into the proceeding. 

Buoyed by the recent trial success of CBA and other companies facing shareholder ire, building materials giant Boral is taking its chances at a hearing in a class action alleging disclosure breaches linked to its US windows business.

A judge has signed off on a $230 million settlement of a class action on behalf of thousands of junior doctors who allege they were systemically underpaid by the NSW government.

Deciding an “unusually difficult” costs application, a judge has declined to award Monsanto all of its costs for defending a class action alleging its Roundup weed killer is carcinogenic, saying the agrochemical giant should have pushed harder for a split trial. 

A judge has rejected Queensland’s bid to transfer two class actions over the removal of Indigenous children to its home turf from Victoria, saying removal was unnecessary in light of the court’s use of livestreaming technology and willingness to hold hearings in Brisbane.

The High Court has agreed to step in to resolve division among Australia’s courts on the question of power to make orders that exclude unregistered group members from class action settlements.

The Victorian Bar has welcomed 25 new senior counsel to the ranks this year, a group of barristers with broad ranging experience in IP, tax, class actions, employment and criminal law.

A $13.5 million settlement has been reached in a Gadens-led class action against former Quintis director Frank Wilson, and the funder of a rival class action is preparing to seek a chunk of the sum in what a judge has called a “most unusual circumstance”.

A class action has lost its appeal to the High Court in a case alleging Advanta Seeds owed damages to farmers for the economic loss resulting from its negligence in producing contaminated grain sorghum seed, with the justices clarifying that a duty of care may be established only if responsibility is assumed.

A unit of construction company Fletcher Building has been hit with a class action over its Pro-Fit pipes, which have been blamed by Western Australian builder BGC for plumbing failures in thousands of Perth homes.