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A judge has denied a law firm's bid to stay a rival's closed shareholder class action against construction giant Boral but warned courts must be alive to the potential for conflicts where lawyers stand to reap "very significant financial awards" from class action proceedings.
A judge has approved a $50 million settlement in a shareholder class action against failed training company Vocation and auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, but questioned whether the $10.9 million commission and $12.75 million legal bill could have been "materially lower" had the case been run by one funder and firm instead of two.
Four executives of the failed Arrium have named auditor KPMG as a "concurrent wrongdoer" in defending a shareholder class action over a $754 million capital raising two years prior to the mining and steel giant's $2 billion collapse.
Two shareholder class actions against sandalwood producer Quintis that reached an in principle settlement over a year ago are moving forward following a protracted dispute over insurance, with the lead applicants getting approval to file proposed amended pleadings.
After winning a three-way contest to lead a shareholder class action against construction giant Boral, Maurice Blackburn is seeking to stay a competing class action by Phi Finney McDonald that was allowed to continue as a closed class action.
The High Court has declined to hear a case that challenges the power of judges to make common fund orders at the close of litigation, a challenge the Federal Court had labelled "hypothetical".
The power to make common fund orders in class actions is a question before the High Court a second time, but the justices aren't likely to quell the conflict simmering in the courts below, at least until they have a concrete order before them.
The state of Victoria has opted out of two class actions over allegedly combustible cladding, after agreeing to join as a group member last year.
Perhaps the only thing that barrister William Edwards could show more enthusiasm for than the law -- and class actions -- is his beloved Richmond Tigers, and just like his favourite football team Edwards is on a winning streak.
A Federal Court judge has made his feelings known about a ruling by the NSW Supreme Court last year that found judges have no power to shut unregistered group members out of a class action, but said he was “just a single judge” and was bound by the decision.