We have started to see the Federal Court use its discretionary powers in respect of class actions to order defendants to disclose their insurance policies to plaintiffs. The emergence of these disclosure orders is an example of the flexible and pragmatic approach increasingly being adopted by the Federal Court in class actions, say Johnson Winter & Slattery’s Frances Dreyer and Nicholas Briggs.
Uber Eats will overhaul its contracts with restaurants after an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found the agreements unfairly favoured the food delivery service.
A judge overseeing a class action against engineering company UGL has agreed to extend a class closure order to give the parties a second chance to resolve the case in mediation, but not without expressing concerns that the order did not have the intended effect of encouraging settlement at the first sit-down.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has launched a safety review of bouncers, rockers and inclined sleep products for babies after at least 74 infant fatalities were reported in the United States.
A defamation case brought by Wolf Creek actor John Jarratt against the Daily Telegraph will now proceed, following his acquittal last week on rape charges.
A Federal Court judge has appointed a costs referee in a shareholder class action against two units of dairy co-op Murray Goulburn over a 2016 profit forecast revision which recently settled for $42 million.
Former King & Wood Mallesons partner Stephen Ridgeway has been appointed as the new mergers commissioner at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
A former Commonwealth Bank executive facing criminal commercial bribery charges has been ordered to hand over a number of documents in a US lawsuit brought by IT company Computer Sciences Corporation, but has avoided orders compelling him to take the witness stand.
Medical device manufacturer American Medical Systems has reasserted that it cannot face claims under Australian consumer laws over its allegedly defective vaginal mesh products because it only supplied the products to a US subsidiary.
A self-described “vigilant lawyer against big companies” has attempted to make submissions regarding the costs incurred in the Sirtex shareholder class action settlement, with legal fees and funders’ commissions chewing up half of the $40 million settlement figure. Maurice Blackburn took the lead after two shareholder class actions relating to the biotech company’s revised sales…