The Federal Court is set to become a more attractive forum for class actions now that the Full Court has confirmed it has power to make orders granting solicitors a contingency fee from any settlement or judgment in a group proceeding.
Generic drug maker Mayne Pharma has resolved a shareholder class action centred on disclosures connected to price-fixing claims by US regulators.
A class action on behalf of Axsesstoday bondholders has reached a settlement with accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers, with a court hearing that group members will get almost 50 per cent of the proceeds.
Previously noting the rate was “well outside the median range”, a judge has made an order granting the second highest contingency fee to a law firm running a shareholder class action against vehicle company FleetPartners Group, saying he was satisfied the group costs order was appropriate and necessary.
The liquidators of collapsed media company Big Un are pushing for a trial date in their two-year-old case against financier First Class Capital alleging a three million share purchase was part of a fraudulent design to inflate the collapsed company’s share price.
Shareholders of Commonwealth Bank have lodged expected appeals challenging a decision tossing their class actions over alleged lax money laundering compliance, giving the Full Federal Court a chance to clarify when companies must disclose regulatory investigations.
Counsel for Worley in a nine-year-old shareholder class action that is set for another Full Court appeal has foreshadowed a possible recusal application against the judges who heard the first appeal.
A court has found iSignthis and its former CEO Nickolas John Karantzis breached the Corporations Act in disclosures to the stock market about one-off revenue and the termination of the fintech’s business arrangement with Visa.
The NSW Supreme Court would have the power to deal with a contingency fee order made in a class action against KPMG if the accounting firm won its application to move the case from Victoria, making the existence of the order a neutral factor in the transfer bid, the federal Attorney-General has told the High Court.
BHP wants to appeal a decision giving a class action the OK to fix what a judge accepted was an “inadvertent mistake” that resulted in a ruling — itself the subject of an appeal — which limited the group member definition.