The Federal Court is set to become a more attractive forum for class actions now that the Full Court has confirmed it has power to make orders granting solicitors a contingency fee from any settlement or judgment in a group proceeding.
In a contest to run a class action against International Capital Markets over risky derivative products, a proposed consolidated proceeding has taken aim at third-to-file Banton Group for allegedly copying its case.
A judge has ordered Transport for NSW to only pay 65 per cent of the costs of a class action over Sydney’s $3 billion light rail construction, finding it was not inappropriate to apportion costs even though the plaintiffs were largely successful.
The NSW Supreme Court would have the power to deal with a contingency fee order made in a class action against KPMG if the accounting firm won its application to move the case from Victoria, making the existence of the order a neutral factor in the transfer bid, the federal Attorney-General has told the High Court.
A judge has warned two law firms competing to run a class action against IC Markets over risky contracts-for-difference that it will be held against them if they take a “holding position” on their funding proposals and attempt to negotiate their bids down later.
A judge will not allow a law firm that stepped in to lead class actions against Hyundai and Kia to amend its funding proposal to seek a group costs order ahead of a carriage fight, even though its proposal would have led to greater returns for group members.
Hearing arguments Tuesday on whether lawyers should be permitted to earn contingency fees in Federal Court class actions, judges on a Full Court bench appeared to lean in favour of allowing so-called solicitors’ common fund orders, rejecting claims they are “unjust”.
A class action against BPS Financial may abandon some claims after a judge found in a separate case brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission that the Qoin cryptocurrency issuer made false and misleading claims about its product.
A New South Wales developer’s competition case against NSW Ports over a ports privatisation agreement looks bound for the High Court after a judge found a related ACCC proceeding did not bar it from bringing the case, which will challenge a Full Court finding that the ports operator was shielded by derivative Crown immunity.
Supporting KPMG’s bid to move a class action over the collapse of Arrium from Melboure to Sydney, former directors of the failed steel company have told the High Court the Victoria Supreme Court was impermissibly preferring the policy of its state in finding a contingency fee order made in the case could be factored into a transfer application.