A Federal Court judge has criticised Volkswagen for being “uncooperative” in refusing to tell the court who authorised the defeat device at the heart of the auto giant’s diesel emissions cheating scandal.
AMP has prevailed in a hard-fought fight over where it will defend five shareholder class actions brought in the wake of the Banking Royal Commission, in a precedent-setting judgement that provides a road map for future jurisdictional battles over competing class actions.
Lawyers wants to expand the class action brought against the Ford Motor Company of Australia over allegedly defective Powershift transmissions, seeking court approval to increase the class size and bring new unconscionable conduct claims.
Six major car companies indicated Tuesday they were open to a quick settlement of class actions brought on behalf of potentially hundreds of thousands of Australian drivers whose cars were fitted with defective and deadly Takata airbags.
A judge refused Tuesday to step down from two cases brought by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank seeking to claw back loans from group members in a settled class action over Great Southern Group’s managed investment schemes, saying no apprehension of bias could arise.
The leader of the notorious cult known as The Family, who is facing a class action by sect members who claim they were tortured and sexually abused as children in her care, has denied the allegations in a bare-bones defence.
A pro bono class action on behalf of asylum seekers who allege they were unlawfully imprisoned in Australian immigration detention centres has been shut down by the Federal Court, which ruled Monday it had no jurisdiction to hear the proceeding.
A $3 million settlement in the shareholder class action against the directors of failed mining company Kagara has been approved, with a Federal Court judge saying the amount is fair and reasonable despite two-thirds of it going to the lawyers and funder that brought the case.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is seeking to strike out portions of a shareholder class action over allegedly lax anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing controls it calls a “vague penumbra” that leaves the bank in the dark about the case against it.
Private follow-on actions for consumer law violations will be easier to bring under a new bill recently introduced in the Senate, a potential boon to class action lawyers.