A challenge to the legality of common fund orders, an appeal to the High Court over the power of judges to stay competing cases, one of the first judgments in a shareholder class action and reform proposals promise to make 2019 another action-packed year in class actions. Here, experts give their predictions for the class action landscape this year.
Last year was an exciting one for class action lawyers, with monumental court decisions on competing cases, cross-jurisdictional spats, proportionality in settlements and the power of judges to decide how a recovery is distributed. Here, top class action litigators tell us what the most significant rulings of 2018 were and why the decisions will continue to matter this year.
ANZ treasurer Rick Moscati was at the centre of a flurry of phone calls and meetings with underwriters and other bank executives on the day the underwriters agreed to pick up a $791 million shortfall in a $2.5 billion capital raising, an agreement which has led to groundbreaking cases by two regulators, according to a new court document.
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.
The court’s authority to shut down competing class actions is no longer in doubt after Tuesday’s Full Federal Court judgment in the case against GetSwift, and while there is no “silver bullet” when it comes to how judges must deal with multiple proceedings, there are key factors to weigh, the appeals court said. Here, experts provide the big takeaways from the landmark ruling.
A groundbreaking judgment by the Full Federal Court over competing class actions will be handed down Tuesday morning and is expected to give judges much needed guidance on how to move forward when confronted, as they increasingly are, with multiple proceedings over the same alleged misconduct.
The corporate watchdog’s dim view of proposals to regulate litigation funders got a mixed reaction from big players in the industry Thursday, with its position supported by foreign funders but frowned on by at least one home-grown firm.
The $92 million payout to two funders that financed the recently settled S&P Global class actions shows the need for continued scrutiny of litigation funding agreements, experts say, but whether it is a sign of windfalls to come or is a ghost of commission’s past is another question.
The decision by a federal judge to refuse calls for a confidentiality order keeping under wraps S&P Global’s massive class action settlement is a welcome one, experts say, and a preview of judgments to come.
The bitter dispute between Gina Rinehart and two of her children over billions of dollars in iron ore mining assets may come down to how the High Court interprets a single word in an arbitration clause of agreements signed by the warring family members.