The divisive issue of whether judges are empowered to make a common fund order to distribute the costs of a funding commission at the settlement stage of a class action is headed back to the Full Federal Court next week.
A judge overseeing a class action over AMP’s fees for no service practice has dismissed the applicant’s bid to access communications between AMP and law firm Clayton Utz that led up to an ostensibly independent report that allegedly went through 25 rounds of edits with the wealth manager’s inhouse lawyers.
In a boost to shareholder class actions, the High Court has dismissed an application by engineering services firm Worley to appeal a finding that companies should disclose to the market forecasts that ought reasonably to have been held.
The law firm that secured a $44.5 million settlement in a class action against Woolworths has won its full $14.5 million in costs, with a judge tossing the report of the referee he appointed to examine the fees, which he said appeared double what they should be.
A class action over AMP’s fees for no service practice wants communications with law firm Clayton Utz that led up to a report that allegedly went through 25 rounds of edits with the wealth manager’s inhouse lawyers before being presented to the corporate regulator as independent.
The applicants in a class action against The Cosmetic Institute and twelve doctors over allegedly “incompetent” breast augmentation surgery have won court approval to expand their case to allege misleading and deceptive conduct and breaches of the consumer guarantees in the Australian Consumer Law.
A judge has signed off on a $125 million settlement to resolve a shareholder class action against Crown Resorts over disclosures relating to its Chinese gambling operations, but has shaved $1 million from the funder’s proposed commission.
US institutional shareholders who joined a class action against Crown Resorts that settled on the eve of trial for $125 million are urging the Federal Court to slash the funder’s commission by $4.65 million.
Deloitte and Noumi, formerly known as Freedom Foods, have pointed the finger at one another in a consolidated shareholder class action, with the accounting giant saying the food company made misleading representations in its financial reports and should be on the hook for its costs in defending the lawsuit.
Avant Insurance has challenged a Federal Court judge’s interpretation of the Insurance Contracts Act in its second attempt to avoid liability for the defence costs of a plastic surgeon named in a class action brought over botched breast augmentations.