A common fund order granting the litigation funder behind the stolen wages class action 20 per cent of a $190 million settlement remains in force after a High Court judgment that did away with such orders, a judge has found.
Mortgage lending and investment company RMBL has agreed to pay $3 million to settle a class action alleging it charged excessive fees on loans and made misleading representations under its contributory mortgage fund scheme.
Companies and other defendants forked over big sums last year to settle more than 20 class actions, with a total of at least $734 million being paid out. Here are the top 10 class action settlements and the law firms and funders that negotiated them.
Litigation funder IMF Bentham has thrown in the towel in a battle over its cut of a $42 million settlement in a class action against dairy cooperative Murray Goulburn, accepting the Federal Court’s proposed 25 per cent commission rate after initially seeking 32 per cent.
Calling it the largest human rights case in Australia’s history, a judge has signed off on a $190 million settlement in a class action against the State of Queensland and approved the funder’s 20 per cent cut of the proceeds.
Arguing it shouldn’t be the victim of an “accident of timing”, the funder that bankrolled the landmark stolen wages class action is fighting to save a common fund order granting it 20 per cent of a $190 million settlement in the case, despite a recent High Court judgment shooting down the orders.
A judge overseeing a consolidated class action against four AMP subsidiaries and two trustees over allegedly excessive superannuation fees has ordered the respondents to coordinate after the lead applicants raised concerns about duplication of work.
A self-imposed cap on legal fees and a reduced funding cut of a $16.5 million settlement in a class action against failed construction company Forge Group was the right call by the law firm and the funder behind the case, a judge has said in his reasons for approving the deal.
A judge has signed off on a $16.5 million settlement of a shareholder class action against collapsed engineering and construction company Forge Group.
Pizza chain Domino’s has been blasted for redactions in documents it has produced in a class action over worker pay, with a judge warning the franchisor that it could not act as “judge and jury” in deciding what information could be given to the applicant.