Eliot Olivier

KPMG failed to bring the necessary scepticism to the task of auditing failing steel manufacturer Arrium, instead leaving contradictory evidence unresolved and giving the company a clean bill of health, a shareholder class action has told the court.

A shareholder class action against KPMG and ex-Arrium directors says the company's accounts were infected by "chronic and systemic overoptimism", with the former operator of Whyalla Steelworks portraying as viable a business that was impaired up to $2.8 billion.

A former client of a Sydney law firm has lost his bid to up a $300,000 damages award against the firm over a defective notice in a proposed $7.8 million land sale.

Class action settlements hit major milestones last year, with the year’s largest settlements totalling $1.6 billion and one case resolving for a historic $548.5 million.

AMP has agreed to pay $29 million to settle a class action alleging insurance customers were overcharged, putting to rest another case stemming from "serious misconduct" that came to light curing the 2018 banking royal commission.

A judge has approved a $110 million settlement in a class action against BHP over the collapse of a tailings dam, and has OK'd fees and commission reducing the sum by 50 per cent, despite concerns the costs were excessive.

The funder and law firms that ran a shareholder class action against BHP over the collapse of the company's Samarco Fundão dam in Brazil will seek approval for deductions that will see half of the $110 million settlement go to group members. 

A shareholder class action over BHP’s disclosures about a Brazilian dam that collapsed 10 years ago has settled for $110 million on the eve of trial, one of a handful of class actions to settle for over $100 million. 

BHP has pushed back on reply submissions in a shareholder class action which the energy company says mistakenly interpret an internal report as putting the risk of collapse of BHP's wastewater dam in Brazil at 25 to 50 per cent. 

The High Court has rejected a special leave application from a shareholder class action against BHP asking it to clarify the correct approach to construing the group member definition.