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A judge overseeing three toxic foam class actions against the Commonwealth of Australia has said he's not comfortable approving a common fund order which does not detail specific remuneration amounts for funder IMF Bentham.
Two Adero Law-led class actions against Hays Specialist Recruitment and Stellar Personnel have been put on hold amid a looming Full Court appeal by Workpac which is expected to clarify the definition of casual work in Australia.
The lead applicant in an $84 million class action against labour hire company WorkPac has been given the green light to intervene in an appeal that will clarify the definition of casual work for Australian employers.
Labour hire company WorkPac has asked the court to dismiss an $84 million class action brought on behalf of thousands of casual mine workers alleging they were misclassified and denied annual leave and other entitlements.
The Chief Justice of the Federal Court wants four referees to weigh what's expected to be voluminous expert evidence in three class actions against the Commonwealth of Australia over exposure to allegedly toxic foam used on a government military bases, saying with 60 class actions pending in the Federal Court, devoting a single judge to the case for months on end should be a "mechanism of last resort".
Two rulings Friday keeping alive the common fund order are a ringing endorsement by the courts of the important role that litigation funders play in class actions, experts say, and have paved the way for more funded post-Hayne consumer litigation against banks and other financial services firms this year.
Common fund orders in class actions are legal and not unconstitutional, six judges found Friday after a history-making joint sitting of two appeals courts.
Common fund orders are the completion of the notion of class actions envisaged when the regime was introduced 27 years ago, a joint-sitting of two appeals courts was told on the second and last day of a landmark challenge to what has become an oft-used case management tool by trial judges.
An appeal before a historic joint sitting of two courts over so-called common fund orders in class actions kicked off Monday with a full bench of six judges and a packed courtroom hearing arguments by eminent barristers for BMW and Westpac that the orders are either preemptive or pointless.
The Australian Taxation Office has successfully appealed an Administrative Appeals Tribunal decision in favour of BHP Billiton, leaving the mining giant with a hefty $82 million tax bill over its Singapore marketing hub.