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.
The applicant in a class action against Ford over allegedly defective PowerShift transmissions has taken another stab at bringing an unconscionable conduct claim, after the judge overseeing the case panned an earlier pleading as “problematic”.
Last year was an exciting one for class action lawyers, with monumental court decisions on competing cases, cross-jurisdictional spats, proportionality in settlements and the power of judges to decide how a recovery is distributed. Here, top class action litigators tell us what the most significant rulings of 2018 were and why the decisions will continue to matter this year.
In a situation a judge has called “extraordinary and troubling”, Deloitte’s files on failed construction company Hastie — sought as evidence by shareholders in a class action — have vanished from the accounting giant’s locked ‘litigation room’ and are now in the control of a single partner who refuses to return them.
A multi-million dollar settlement has been reached in a shareholder class action against private training company Ashley Services over its $67 million tumble two years ago.
Johnson & Johnson unit Ethicon is seeking a class closure order in the pelvic mesh class action, as the company prepares to enter mediation.
The law firms that challenged a ruling staying their cases against GetSwift gave the Full Federal Court a chance to guide judges managing competing class actions, but they can’t avoid paying their opponents’ legal costs because the court happened to seize the opportunity.
A judge has slammed an amended pleading in a class action against Zoetis by horse owners who claim the pharmaceutical company made misleading claims about its Hendra virus drug, saying it presents an “insuperable difficulty”.
A law firm on the losing end of a landmark ruling over competing shareholder class actions against GetSwift has argued that a proposed opt-out notice to group members should wait until after its High Court appeal. And the judge will let the firm make its argument, after hearing that the winning law firm has been, in his words, “sitting on its hands”.