Volkswagen has appealed a record $125 million penalty handed down over its emissions cheating scandal by a judge who criticised a $75 million settlement agreement with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as “manifestly inadequate”.
Engineering services company CIMIC will fork over $32.4 million to settle a shareholder class action, with group members expected to get 40 per cent of the settlement total if the court approves the requested legal costs and funder’s commission.
With Victoria set to pass legislation permitting law firms to charge contingency fees, experts have raised fears of an exodus of class actions from other states and the federal system. But the Federal Court, which hears about two-thirds of Australia’s representative proceedings, is not likely to surrender easily.
A bitter feud between the national office of the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union and union heayweight John Setka, who is accused of poaching members from the manufacturing division, should not play out in court, lawyers for Setka said Wednesday.
Maurice Blackburn has become the second law firm to consider a shareholder class action against Treasury Wine Estates over a recent earnings downgrade.
Facing a class action by shareholders alleging negligence over advice to Slater & Gordon, law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler is bringing proceedings against its former client to use files in defence of the case.
A year after Commissioner Kenneth Hayne released his scathing report, companies in the financial services sector are still facing fresh class actions over conduct aired at the banking royal commission, and the pace has even picked up in recent months.
Crown Resorts has successfully challenged a ruling allowing law firm Maurice Blackburn to communicate with 18 formerly jailed employees to gather evidence in its shareholder class action against the casino giant.
Two National Australia Bank units have been hit with a class action alleging they violated their duties as superannuation trustees by allegedly failing to transfer members to funds with lower fees.
Law firm Slater and Gordon is investigating a potential class action on behalf of sports clubs who claim they missed out on funding from a $100 million grants program overseen by Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie.