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A judge is weighing up a law firm’s high legal costs against a union’s "bizarre" delay in a stoush over who should run a case against McDonald’s alleging 100,000 workers were denied rest breaks.
Two judges on the Full Court bench hearing arguments over power to make common fund orders when approving class action settlements appeared to tip their hand on Monday, chipping away at a High Court judgment that has sowed deep division.
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 has indicated his willingness to approve a $25 million settlement in a class action against dairy co-op Fonterra, but deferred the question of the funder's cut until after the Full Court rules on whether the court has the power to make a common fund order at settlement.
The applicants in a consolidated investor class action against Blue Sky Alternative Investments and auditor EY will be applying for a so-called solicitors common fund order, and will move to transfer the case to the contingency-fee friendly Victoria Supreme Court if the groundbreaking application fails.
A former Nuix director has made a bid to stay a shareholder class action, which accuses the software company of failing to alert the market to red flags in the business, pending the outcome of separate proceedings by ASIC.
Group members in a class action against Fonterra are set to reap about $13 million from a $25 million settlement reached with the dairy company, following deductions including the costs of the litigation funder’s after-the-event insurance.
In reasons for approving a $41 million deal to settle one of three shareholder class actions over Slater & Gordon's acquisition of a UK firm and awarding the funder 28 per cent, a judge has challenged a persistent notion that the interests of litigation funders and group members are at odds.
Class action settlement sums reached new highs last year, with the ten largest agreements totalling almost $1 billion, almost half of which was secured by one plaintiff law firm.
A law firm has lost its bid to challenge a court order that it join forces with a competing firm in an investor class action against Blue Sky Alternative Investments and auditor EY.