Class Actions

Tens of thousands of junior doctors who allege they were systemically underpaid have reached a $230 million settlement with NSW Health, the largest settlement ever in an underpayments class action.

A judge hearing the Victorian government’s bid to knock out a class action over its decision to retire Melbourne’s high-rise public housing towers has questioned the state’s submission that the decision had “no effect” on the rights of tenants.

Gordon Legal is investigating a possible class action related to alleged misconduct by a late Melbourne lawyer on behalf of people who provided “large sums of money” to him and his suburban legal practice.

A judge has retroactively validated the appointment of BDO as auditor for litigation funder Omni Bridgeway after EY resigned due to a class action conflict, saying the failure to seek shareholder approval for the appointment was not the result of a blatant disregard for its obligations. 

As the head of Maurice Blackburn’s class actions group he helped win hundreds of millions of dollars for claimants and shaped the jurisprudence around the practice. As the Victorian Supreme Court’s newest judge, Andrew Watson has promised to keep up the fight for fair.

A class action against Transport for NSW over the alleged fraudulent acquisition of land to construct the $16 billion Westconnex tunnel in Sydney has been put on ice until the funder and the lead plaintiff can resolve a potential dispute. 

A class action targeting Victoria Police over its use of capsicum spray against protesters has lost its bid to uncover confidential information about police crowd control tactics, after a judge found disclosure of the information could “endanger the public”.

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.