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 lead applicant in a shareholder class action against Crown Resorts will ask the Federal Court to declare the proceedings a priority matter so that lawyers readying the case for an upcoming trial in Melbourne can access childcare despite stage 4 COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria.
A former administrative assistant at Piper Alderman who was not allowed to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic says she was terminated for taking parental leave and complaining about a special counsel’s “intimidating and aggressive behaviour”.
Maddens has once again been criticised for its non-compliant costs agreements, three months after receiving similar feedback from a Victoria Supreme Court judge overseeing the firm’s bushfire class actions.
The Victorian Labor Government has successfully passed a landmark bill which makes the failure to properly pay workers a criminal offence punishable by up to 10 years in prison for guilty business owners.
A judge has sentenced a Melbourne-based lawyer to six years in prison for stealing and misusing over $1.7 million in client funds, saying his conduct had “brought the legal profession into disrepute”.
Maurice Blackburn has come up short in its challenge to a multimillion dollar tax bill for a record settlement payout in the Black Saturday bushfire class actions.
A class action launched over the Scotsburn bushfire that burnt down 12 homes and ravaged over 4,000 hectares in Victoria in December 2015 has reached a $10.5 million settlement with agricultural machinery company Agrison and insurer Auto & General Insurance Company.
Engineering firm Adcon has failed in a bid to block developer Icon from accessing a $396,000 bank guarantee after delays in the development of the Botanic Melbourne residential apartment complex.
Victoria will allow judge-only trials as part of a raft of temporary new laws to be put in place to manage the COVID-19 pandemic.