A contradictor appointed in two pelvic mesh class actions against Johnson & Johnson has blasted a $300 million settlement, calling it “massively” short of what is owed to group members, after a judge preliminarily found the sum was not fair and reasonable.
GetSwift has been hit with a $15M penalty and several of its directors have been slapped with substantial penalties after the company was found to have misled shareholders in breach of the Corporations Act.
The question of power to make a common fund order at the end of a class action was no longer a hypothetical one and it was time to send the issue to the Full Federal Court. That’s what the 7-Eleven class action judge was told 15 months ago but he failed to heed the advice, resulting in a court deeply divided and funders clamouring for reform.
The applicants in a consolidated investor class action against Blue Sky Alternative Investments and auditor EY will be applying for a so-called solicitors common fund order, and will move to transfer the case to the contingency-fee friendly Victoria Supreme Court if the groundbreaking application fails.
The law firm running the Montara oil spill class action, which has settled for $192.5 million, is looking for a new lead applicant after the first one defected over concerns group members would lose half the settlement amount to legal costs and a funding commission.
Mining investor Tolga Kumova has won an order banning the man behind the Twitter handle Stock Swami from publishing allegations concerning the his past actions after a judge found he was defamed by tweets accusing him of insider trading.
Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann was reasonably identifiable as Brittany Higgins’ alleged rapist in an interview aired on Ten’s The Project and articles published by News Corp Australia, according to court documents in defamation cases against the media companies.
The applicant in a Shine Lawyers-run class action against Boston Scientific over alleged defective pelvic mesh wants to switch legal representation, taking her business to Shine’s former class actions head, who recently parted ways with the firm to launch her own boutique.
A second class action has been brought against Jaguar Land Rover over alleged defective diesel filters in its vehicles, and the law firms running the two cases have been given until the end of the month to reach a deal to avoid a court showdown.
A judge has found a law firm’s estimated fees for representing the Commonwealth in a class action over the use of allegedly toxic firefighting foam on military bases are excessive, noting the government has already forked over $12 million in defence costs.