Lawyerly’s Litigation Firms of 2020 delivered significant victories for clients last year in bet-the-company matters, thriving in a tumultuous year that saw courts and litigants adapt to virtual trials and other new norms that are sure to outlast the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a year headlined by partisan sparring and mudslinging over the Federal Government’s class action reform effort, judges forged ahead to refine the class action regime, issuing significant judgments on common fund orders and class closure, and handing the first post-trial win to a company in a shareholder class action. Here, Lawyerly takes you through some of the major class action events in 2020 and their consequences for the year ahead.
While there was no shortage of pain and challenges for law firms as the coronavirus raged across the globe last year, a number of big firms also felt the sting of litigation from disgruntled clients, partners and employees.
Payouts in class actions in 2020 largely kept pace with the previous year despite the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, with companies and other defendants paying more than $696 million to settle class actions last year.
Class action experts have knocked several recommendations from the Parliamentary Joint Committee for reforming the class action system, including that group members be guaranteed at least 70 per cent of any settlement or judgment, saying this would be challenging to implement and could make disputes harder to resolve.
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A group representing plaintiff law firm has lampooned recommendations from the government’s latest inquiry into class actions, including that the country’s continuous disclosure laws be permanently relaxed, saying they give corporations the green light to fleece consumers and mislead investors.
The latest inquiry report into class actions has put forward a suite of recommendations that would remake the class action regime by empowering the Federal Court to vary litigation funding agreements, requiring judges to hold class action beauty parades and making permanent the government’s temporary changes to continuous disclosure laws.
A judge has signed off on settlements in two class actions against a defunct Sydney-based financial advisory firm by a group of Chinese investors over a property investment and visa scheme that allegedly saw group members lose $30 million in funds.
Rival bookmakers Sportsbet and Sportsbetting.com.au have reached a settlement in their trade mark and consumer law dispute, agreeing to drop their claims against each other for unspecified terms.