A shareholder class action against livestock exporter Wellard is seeking approval for a $23 million settlement which will see only $7.86 million go to group members, telling the court that the funder and law firm that ran the case have agreed to take a haircut on the deductions they’re entitled to.
The law firm behind a class action against Insurance Australia Group has secured a group costs order that will give it 30 per cent of any proceeds — a contingency fee rate six percentage points higher than the median rate for shareholder cases.
Group members in a shareholder class action against livestock exporter Wellard will get 34 per cent of a $23 million settlement if the court approves deductions sought by the funder and law firm that ran the case.
The High Court has refused special leave in a failed class action against Volkswagen over allegedly defective Takata airbags.
A judge has signed off on a 27.5 per cent group costs order in a consolidated shareholder class action against Medibank over a cyberattack that affected 10 million customers, noting the “significant risk” taken on by the two plaintiff law firms running the action.
A former PricewaterhouseCoopers partner has sued the firm for denying him retirement payments for moving to alleged competitor DLA Piper and for his alleged involvement in the firm’s tax leaks crisis.
A shareholder class action against livestock exporter Wellard over a profit downgrade following its $300 million initial public offering in 2015 has settled for $23 million.
A judge has discontinued a class action by Victorian councils against insurer JLT Risk Solutions, but has departed from the decisions of two other judges by ruling the suspension of the time limit for bringing the councils’ claims will immediately be lifted.
The country’s most experienced class action law firm won two and lost two in last year’s beauty parades before the courts, showing track record is not everything when it comes to winning carriage of cases and that picking the winner can be a tricky business. From line-ball decisions to law firm team-ups and the lowest contingency fee order yet, here’s how 2023’s class action contests went down.
Energy company Santos has defeated a challenge by a Tiwi Islander traditional custodian to the construction of a pipeline for its $5.6 billion Barossa gas project, with a judge rejecting expert evidence about risks to cultural heritage.