The Federal Court judge overseeing three class actions against the Commonwealth of Australia over allegedly toxic firefighting foam has criticised the government’s handling of the case, saying the court did not have to ask permission for how to run the proceedings.
A Federal Court judge has slapped Optus with a $6.4 million penalty for sending a misleading email to 138,988 mobile customers informing them their broadband service would be disconnected soon, just two days after the telecommunications giant copped a $1.5 million penalty for similar conduct.
The Full Federal Court has handed a win to Hytera in its high-stakes intellectual property litigation with Motorola, allowing the Chinese radio manufacturer to file an amended defence arguing Motorola should have alerted it to the alleged theft of its source code by former employees sooner.
Accounting giant Ernst & Young, which has been dragged into two class actions by Slater & Gordon shareholders, has shot back at claims it was negligent in its 2015 audit report of the law firm’s UK division, which included a review of the firm’s disastrous acquisition of Quindell’s professional services arm that found no impairment on the goodwill value of the deal.
A trendy Bondi Beach bar has dragged Aristocrat Technologies to court for allegedly selling it defective gaming machines that repeatedly froze when customers tried to use them.
The NSW Supreme Court has ruled against the operators of two Queensland dams as well as the state government, finding they were vicariously liable for the negligence of flood engineers in the 2011 Southeast Queensland floods that destroyed over 2,000 homes.
Embattled banking giant Westpac may be seeking to limit its potential liability in any shareholder class actions it may face in the wake of AUSTRAC’s lawsuit alleging 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, with the bank offering to refund some of those that purchased shares as part of a $2.5 billion capital raising.
Plaintiffs lawyers running class actions in Victoria will be free to charge contingency fees under new legislation introduced by the Labor government this week, a move that will see a boost in class actions brought in the state and has prompted calls for the Federal Government to follow suit.
The ACCC has taken its long-running battle over access fees at the Port of Newcastle to the Federal Court, challenging a re-arbitration decision that overturned its finding that the fees should be cut by 20 per cent.
The funders behind two shareholder class actions against online fashion retailer Surfstitch Group will seek a commission of up to 30 per cent while the law firms that brought the cases will ask for approval of up to $6 million in legal fees during an upcoming settlement approval hearing, which also puts the fate of a deed of company arrangement that saved the company from liquidation on the line.