Victoria

The state of Victoria has won its bid to prevent lawyers for a class action over Victoria’s COVID-19 hotel quarantine debacle from proofing lay witnesses, ahead of a criminal trial against the Department of Health, which is due to start in May.

When the Supreme Court of Victoria considers for the first time a settlement reached in a class action run on a contingency fee basis, it will grapple with some novel questions, including whether to trim the 27.5 per cent group costs order granted to Slater & Gordon at the outset of the case, legal experts say.

Australia’s largest childcare centre operator G8 Education has agreed to pay $46.5 million to settle a shareholder class action alleging the company failed to keep investors in the loop about factors affecting its 2017 financial performance, and the firm that ran the case is set to make $13 million after securing the first group costs order in Victoria.

A judge has set aside subpoenas in a class action against Mercedes-Benz over alleged emissions cheating seeking material to identify group members and clarify the composition of the class, finding they were not issued for a legitimate forensic purpose.

On the eve of trial, rideshare giant Uber has agreed to pay $271.8 million to settle a five-year-old class action brought by taxi and hire car drivers in four states over the introduction of UberX.

Victorian Liberal Party leader John Pesutto is facing the threat of two more defamation suits by organisers of last year’s anti-trans ‘Let Women Speak’ rally, which was crashed by neo-Nazis.

The Australian Football League has asked a court to stay an individual lawsuit brought by a “totally incapacitated” former Western Bulldogs player until a related class action on behalf of players who allegedly suffered brain injuries is decided.

A class action over the Victorian government’s decision to redevelop the state’s public housing towers has asked the court for an injunction blocking demolition of three towers in inner city Melbourne, as the state foreshadows a bid to summarily dismiss the case.

KPMG has won its application for the High Court to weigh in on the relevance of a contingency fee order in determining a bid to transfer a shareholder class action from Victoria to NSW.

A law firm has commenced an investigation into a potential class action against the Victorian government on behalf of survivors of historical child sexual abuse at government schools.