The judge overseeing the Maurice Blackburn-led shareholder class action against Slater and Gordon that resulted in a $36.5 million settlement has signed off on additional costs for the law firm and the funder that backed the case.
Regulating third-party litigation funders gets a resounding yes, but experts are divided on removing the ban on contingency fees and other recommendations for reforming the class action regime. Lawyerly spoke to defence and plaintiff-side lawyers, as well as funders, for their take on the recent proposals, and five major talking points emerged.
After a marathon hearing in court on Monday, law firm Squire Patton Boggs lost its battle to avoid client communication restraints that other parties in the GetSwift class action saga voluntarily agreed to.
Mining giant BHP Billiton has been hit with two class actions alleging it hired hundreds of mine workers as casual employees to avoid paying proper wages and benefits, and industry heavyweights Yancoal and Glencore may face similar claims in the coming months.
Any claims that Australia will face a US-style explosion of class actions if lawyers are free to charge contingency fees are unwarranted, the head of the Victorian Law Reform Commission told Lawyerly in response to criticism of recent litigation reform proposals.
A judge has ruled the former head of Titan Industries must provide evidence in the class action trial over the Rudd Government’s cancellation of a program that subsidised home insulation installations, saying there was no proof his testimony could be used to bring a criminal case or reopen a coronial inquest into the death of a Titan contractor.
The trustee for collapsed investment group LKM Capital has reached a settlement in a class action brought on behalf of hundreds of investors who sunk $63 million into the failed firm.
Class action lawyers should be allowed to charge contingency fees and earn a percentage of any settlement, the Victorian Law Reform Commission said Tuesday on the much anticipated release of its report into class action funding.
Sydney’s Liverpool council has reached a proposed settlement with residents who claim their properties were harmed when soil containing asbestos was dumped near nature strips around their properties.
A legal stoush over a “secret” side agreement between the lead applicant in a shareholder class action and a litigation funder has been shut down, with the Full Federal Court on Monday dismissing an appeal by the applicant.