The firm behind a class action over Victoria’s COVID-19 hotel quarantine debacle has won a group costs order providing for a 30 per cent contingency fee, after promising it won’t ask for more down the road.
A law firm behind a class action against the state of Victoria over the COVID-19 hotel quarantine fiasco is seeking what would be the second highest contingency fee rate for running the case, saying the percentage was justified given the complexity of the novel claims.
Two law firms that were able to “work cooperatively” to join their cases have been awarded carriage of a shareholder class action against mining firm Downer EDI. The judge overseeing the proceedings also approved a group costs order application that proposed a “reasonable rate” of return to the firms.
The OAIC has been dragged to court by the law firm that filed a class action-style complaint over the massive Optus data breach, after the privacy commissioner chose a competing representative complaint to move forward.
A judge has endorsed Medibank’s bid to sue the OAIC so the court can weigh in on the health insurer’s bid to halt the regulator’s investigation in favour of a class action over its October data breach, saying the OAIC’s interference with the court proceedings could constitute a contempt of court.
The field of competitors in a four-way contest to run a shareholder class action against Downer EDI over a $40 million profit overstatement has narrowed with the consolidation of three cases, leaving one firm to face criticism over its comparative inexperience running group proceedings.
The state of Victoria is making a bid to suppress its defence in a class action brought over the 2020 hotel quarantine fiasco, as it faces a “substantially altered” indictment in a related criminal proceeding.
On the first day of trial in parallel class actions and regulatory proceedings, the Fair Work Ombudsman panned the payment systems adopted by Woolworths and Coles for salaried managers, saying they were “entirely foreign” to the industrial award and that the supermarket giants had “no meaningful proper records” for overtime.
A group of Victorian barristers says the Bar has a responsibility to make a public statement backing the proposed Voice to Parliament, while others have questioned the “propriety” of speaking out, an email to members reveals.
The state of Victoria has foreshadowed a High Court challenge in its fight to stay a class action over the 2020 hotel quarantine in light of criminal action, an appeal it said raised issues relating to the “increasing and regular prosecutions” of government and corporate entities over health and safety laws.