A lingering dispute with the tax office remains, but the distribution of the record $795 million Black Saturday class actions settlement is substantially complete, according to a report out this week, and the proceedings, by the measure of at least one expert, show why the class action system in Australia is working.
Labour on-hire and recruitment company CoreStaff is facing a class action alleging it violated the consumer laws by luring workers to Australia from Papua New Guinea with the promise of long-term work, only to terminate their employment agreements less than three years after they relocated.
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers said Wednesday it is expanding its class action against Uber, with the firm saying the total claim against the US ride-sharing company would likely dwarf any class action recovery in Australia’s history.
The two funders paying for a shareholder class action against facility services company Spotless Group want 25 percent of any net settlement or judgment in the case, a rate that mirrors the commission approved in a common fund order now at the centre of a constitutional challenge.
A judge has taken a hatchet to Quinn Emanuel’s fees and the funder’s cut in a $12 million settlement of a class action against Bank of Queensland, a settlement which he previously described as one of the “worst” he’d ever seen.
A judge has signed off on an application to set aside a portion of a $30 million settlement in a class action over the 2004 Palm Island riots for financial counselling for registered group members, saying the court had the power to make the landmark order.
A late proposal by the Australian Law Reform Commission to introduce a ‘leave to proceed’ mechanism into class actions has been blasted by a major litigation funder and a plaintiffs-side law firm as a de facto class certification procedure that would ramp up costs and add years of delay to cases.
Squire Patton Boggs has refused a request by rival Phi Finney McDonald for the details of group members it signed up to its now stayed shareholder class action against GetSwift, a court has learned, in the latest show of resistance by the losing law firm.
An expert witness in an investor class action against Fitch Ratings over toxic financial products is no expert at all, the lead applicant told the court in contesting the admissibility of the expert’s evidence.
A leading law firm has called for a closer look at the increasing involvement of short sellers in shareholder class actions, saying any review that flows from the current inquiry should examine whether short sellers should be allowed to join the legal proceedings.