Class Actions

A judge has signed off on a $16 million settlement in a class action against Dixon Advisory, but the funder of a competing case that was stayed after losing a beauty parade has earned a fragment of the $1 million it sought from the resolution sum.

The NSW Court of Appeal has said it has no power to exclude group members who do not sign up to a class action from participating in a settlement, upholding a controversial decision that the Full Federal Court said was “plainly wrong”. 

The plaintiffs in two competing class actions against Mercedes-Benz over alleged defeat devices designed to cheat regulatory emissions tests have agreed to temporarily stay the first-filed proceeding so that one filed over a year later can go ahead, a court has heard. 

A group of surgeons who worked for The Cosmetic Institute are set to pay $25 million to settle a class action brought on behalf of 13,500 patients who claim they were injured by botched breast augmentation surgery.

Investment manager IOOF has failed to persuade a judge that the applicant in a failed shareholder class action should face indemnity costs for rejecting a $6 million offer to settle the case.

Transport workers have lodged a $40 million class action against one of the country’s largest super funds for allegedly miscalculating their superannuation entitlements.

Sydney lender GEMI may face a class action for allegedly enticing wealthy individuals to make investments in products they were misled into believing were low risk.

A class action against the Murray Darling Basin Authority over alleged negligent water management is seeking to claim a funder’s commission as damages after a judge refused the first-ever such bid in a separate group proceeding. 

A class action seeking to hold a regional NSW law firm liable for the actions of a former employee who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for fraud offences in 2021 has reached a settlement. 

A judge has approved a group costs order in a shareholder class action against building materials giant James Hardie Industries, giving firm Echo Law a 27.5 per cent cut of any proceeds from the case.