The Victorian Supreme Court will push ahead with a hearing for a group costs order in a class action by Arrium shareholders despite requests by the applicants that it be put off until after judgment is issued on the second-ever group costs order request.
New requirements that funded class actions be run as managed investment schemes will throw up myriad new questions for the courts, with lawyers predicting novel challenges by defendants and group members and an altered landscape for competing class actions.
A Victoria Supreme Court judge will hear the second ever application for a group costs order in a shareholder class action against G8 Education, saying she hoped to deal with the bid in a “straightforward way”.
A judge has rejected an application by the plaintiffs in two class actions against Freedom Foods and Deloitte to run their cases side-by-side, but said she would have granted a bid to consolidate the proceedings had that been sought.
Recent changes to the law requiring funded class actions to be registered as managed investment schemes have complicated the question of how best to resolve the multiplicity issue in two class actions brought against Freedom Foods and Deloitte.
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.
A judge has signed off on a proposal by two law firms to jointly run a consolidated class action against Allianz over add-on car insurance, shooting down the insurer’s argument that a beauty contest would promote competitive contingency fee rates.
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 landmark ruling on a bid for a contingency fee in a class action is close, a judge said Tuesday as she heard argument in a class action against Treasury Wine Estates on whether an opt out notice should be sent to shareholders ahead of a group costs order.
Consolidation of two consumer class actions against Allianz would do away with competition in a contest to lead a single case that would force a drop in the contingency fee rates of the rival law firms, the insurance giant has told a court.