The first ever application for a group costs order will be heard in class actions against ANZ and Westpac, and the judge weighing the application has urged the parties to think carefully about the evidence they will submit in support of their bid for a cut of any settlement or judgment.
A judge has raised questions about an estimated $13.6 million in legal costs to be sought in an upcoming approval hearing on a $44.5 million settlement reached in a shareholder class action against Woolworths.
A judge has approved a $9.5 million settlement in a class action against McMillan Shakespeare as fair and reasonable, allowing a common fund order and a nearly 30 percent commission for the litigation funder despite previously raising “real concerns” about the small portion flowing to group members.
The funder behind a class action against McMillan Shakespeare has warned against the court beating it up like a ‘pinata’ in a settlement approval hearing in which the judge expressed “real concerns” about the portion of a $9.5 million settlement earmarked for group members.
A judge has sided with five investments banks and rejected a bid to amend a class action alleging a series of cartel agreements to rig foreign exchange rates, saying there were “substantial problems” with the proposed pleadings.
Trial is set to begin February 2 in a $100 million shareholder class action against Woolworths over a February 2015 profit downgrade that allegedly led to a drop in the company’s share price.
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.
The law firm that led an unfunded class action against the Federal government over the controversial Robodebt scheme will ask the court to approve up to $16 million in legal costs when it seeks approval for the $112 million settlement reached in the class action last year.
The applicant in the settled Robodebt class action has warned a judge he will have a “dispute on [his] hands” if the government presses an argument that law firm Gordon Legal is not entitled to some of its legal fees — an argument the court was told would put the Commonwealth in breach of the settlement deed.
The parties in a class action against the Federal Government over the controversial Robodebt scheme have reached an in principle settlement as the first day of a highly anticipated hearing was scheduled to kick off.