A judge overstepped in throwing out a class action against two National Australia Bank units over alleged MySuper mismanagement because of a carveout in the Victorian Supreme Court Act which bars class actions involving trust property, an appeals court has heard.
A ruling this week that rejected the first application for a group costs order in a class action because the applicants were better off with their existing no win, no fee arrangement was the right decision given the limits of the legislation, experts say.
Saying the interests of class action members “must be given primacy”, a judge has rejected the first bid for a group costs order in a class action since contingency fee legislation passed in Victoria.
A dozen group members can opt out of Maurice Blackburn’s Roundup class action against Monsanto and switch to a competing class action being run by Sydney-based LHD Lawyers that was closed and temporarily stayed in May last year.
A Victoria Supreme Court judge weighing for the first time an application by a law firm for a percentage cut of recoveries in class actions has been told to reject the bid because group members would fare better under the firm’s current no win, no fee funding arrangement.
The lead applicant in a class action against Bayer over its allegedly defective Essure contraceptive devices has won court approval to drop her consumer law claims against the German drug maker, with a judge agreeing that the plaintiff’s defect and negligence claims had a better chance of succeeding.
A judge has criticised agricultural giant Monsanto for its “highly unsatisfactory” conduct in ignoring court orders in a class action over its allegedly cancer-causing Roundup pesticides.
The judge overseeing the first ever bid for a group costs order in a class action that will give the plaintiff’s law firm a percentage cut of the proceeds has urged the firm to rethink characterising its own solicitor as an expert.
A Federal Court class action against two NAB units over $6.3 billion in super funds is on hold after lawyers for the applicant filed an appeal of a ruling that found their state court proceeding had been invalidly commenced.
Maurice Blackburn has brought a second class action against two NAB units over $6.3 billion in super funds, after the law firm’s first attempt was shut down by a state court as invalid.