The NSW Court of Appeal has passed on the question of whether a judge can make a common fund order when a class action settles to ensure a certain return to litigation funders, but the issue is not going away, whatever the Federal Court’s decision in a parallel case.
The Federal Court has approved what is thought to be only the second ever audio-visual opt out notice in a class action, a move that will make it easier for group members to find out about class actions they may be eligible for.
A Sydney-based law firm is conducting a class action investigation into medical device manufacturer Boston Scientific’s pelvic mesh products, adding to the growing list of companies facing lawsuit by women who claim they experienced pain and other adverse symptoms due to the implants.
A judge due to hear a high profile appeal by Johnson & Johnson unit Ethicon has expressed confusion about the grounds on which the medical device maker is challenging a landmark judgment putting it on the hook for potentially hundreds of million of dollars in damages over faulty pelvic mesh implants.
Medical device maker Covidien has lost a bid to have the applicant in a product liability class action over allegedly defective pelvic mesh front $300,000 as security for its legal costs in the event it wins the case.
A judge has signed off on a $10.5 million settlement in a class action over the 2015 Scotsburn bushfire in Victoria, but slashed the costs of the law firm that brought the case by over $1 million.
The second meeting of creditors of embattled cladding manufacturer Fairview Architectural has been pushed back to give administrators more time to work out what is in the best interests of creditors, after the lead applicant in a class action against the cladding manufacturer submitted a $5.8 million claim.
A judge has granted a mid-trial bid to bring in “potentially quite significant” new evidence in a class action against Ford over its allegedly defective PowerShift transmissions, finding the failure to file the material earlier was not deliberate but a “mistake” on the part of the lead applicant’s solicitors at Corrs Chambers Westgarth.
The judge hearing a class action trial against Ford over its allegedly defective Powershift transmission has rejected the car maker’s argument that certain documents should be suppressed because they hold trade secrets, saying Ford did not invent the 6 Sigma problem solving method on which some of the reports were based.
Cladding manufacturer Fairview Architectural has filed for voluntary administration, citing challenges posed by COVID-19 and $1.5 million spent so far defending a class action alleging it misrepresented the quality of its “highly flammable” cladding.