Class Actions

From a record-setting funder’s cut to the first call for ‘“proportionality”, last year saw a number of groundbreaking judgments approving class action settlements worth more than half a billion dollars. Here are the 10 biggest settlements of 2018, and the law firms and funders that negotiated them.  

Two law firms have launched formal investigations into possible class actions over Sydney’s defective Opal Tower, inviting owners of units in the “crumbling” building to register their interest in joining legal proceedings.

The families of asylum seekers who died in the 2010 Christmas Island boat crash have lost an appeal of a ruling that dismissed their class action against Australia.

The applicants in a class action over exposure to allegedly toxic foam used on a government military base have struck back at the Commonwealth of Australia’s argument that their claims were filed too late.

A judge has dispensed with the opt out notice requirement in two class actions filed in administration proceedings related to the spectacular collapse of HIH Insurance.

A judge who signed off on a contested $36.5 million settlement to resolve a $1 billion class action against Slater & Gordon has explained his reasons a year later, saying the “unusual” deal flowed from the law firm’s “dire financial situation”.

The former CEO of Radio Rentals, James Marshall, has been dragged into a consumer class action alleging he knew the home goods rental company pushed misleading leases onto vulnerable consumers.

The investor behind a failed class action against the Public Trustee of Queensland over the collapse of Octaviar Group has escaped a bid by the Trustee for maximum costs, with a judge ruling the case was not a “nakedly speculative venture” by the funder.

A challenge to the legality of common fund orders, an appeal to the High Court over the power of judges to stay competing cases, one of the first judgments in a shareholder class action and reform proposals promise to make 2019 another action-packed year in class actions. Here, experts give their predictions for the class action landscape this year.

Adero Law has filed class actions against labour hire companies Hays and Stellar Personnel on behalf of casual miners who allege they were entitled to accrued leave, on the eve of what’s expected to be a banner year for employment class actions in Australia.