Labour hire company WorkPac has asked the court to dismiss an $84 million class action brought on behalf of thousands of casual mine workers alleging they were misclassified and denied annual leave and other entitlements.
Banking giant Westpac has criticised Maurice Blackburn for rushing to file the first class action in the wake of the banking royal commission’s scathing final report, saying the self-appointed leading class action firm should know how to properly commence proceedings.
In a first for the NSW Supreme Court, Judge Peter Garling last week found that the plaintiff in a class action does not need to have a claim against all defendants, a case that could make life much easier for plaintiff lawyers, says barrister Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz of Second Floor Wentworth Chambers.clas
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, facing cross-claims by credit ratings agency Fitch in a class action alleging it gave false or misleading double A and triple A ratings to synthetic CDOs backed by Sigma Financial, told investors Fitch’s withdrawal of Sigma’s credit rating prior to the collapse of the $27 billion investment fund was a “technical” issue, the bank has admitted.
Trial in a shareholder class action against engineering company WorleyParsons will be heard by a new judge in late August, six months after it was unexpectedly vacated.
The Chief Justice of the Federal Court wants four referees to weigh what’s expected to be voluminous expert evidence in three class actions against the Commonwealth of Australia over exposure to allegedly toxic foam used on a government military bases, saying with 60 class actions pending in the Federal Court, devoting a single judge to the case for months on end should be a “mechanism of last resort”.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission wants to add GetSwift’s former inhouse lawyer as a respondent in its enforcement action against the logistics company, as debate rages over whether a class action against the company should be postponed.
Maurice Blackburn has not given up its fight with the Australian Taxation Office over a multimillion dollar tax liability on record-setting class action payout for Black Saturday bushfire victims.
A judge has rejected a motion by the NSW government and 15 local health districts to shut down a class action by the relatives of overseas patients who were forced to serve as guarantors and hit with hospital bills worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is facing claims by the lead applicants in two class actions against failed retail giant Dick Smith alleging its poor accounting practices contributed to the retailer’s collapse.