A litigation funder challenging a decision underpinning recently enacted rules that require class actions to be registered as managed investment schemes told an appeals court Wednesday the decision was plainly wrong and the regime unworkable.
A former manager at the NSW Roads and Maritime Services awarded over $12.2 million in government contracts to two companies owned by his friends, the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption has found.
With the Australian Labor Party to form government after Saturday’s election defeat for the Coalition, class action lawyers are looking forward to reforms that expand access to justice, enshrine the court’s power to supervise costs and wind back Morrison-era legislation.
Availability of phone voting for the federal election has been extended for people isolating with COVID-19, following threatened legal action by high profile teal independent Monique Ryan.
Popular independent candidate Dr Monique Ryan — who is contesting Josh Frydenberg’s seat of Kooyong — is lodging legal action for tens of thousands of COVID sufferers who won’t be able to vote in the federal election.
The state of Victoria has asked a court to strike out a class action alleging lapses in its hotel quarantine program caused businesses to suffer losses when stage three and four COVID-19 restrictions were put in place between July and August 2020.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has been asked to investigate Qantas’ “unworkable” flight credit redemption scheme, which consumer group Choice says places unreasonable hurdles in the way of travellers trying to get a refund or redeem vouchers.
A judge has ordered that $1.27 million be set aside to cover the costs of the law firm administering the settlement in the class action over the federal government’s Robodebt scheme, cutting about $1 million from the figure sought.
The Full Federal Court has appointed a contradictor to “take up the cudgels” against funder Litigation Capital Management, which has challenged a judgment refusing to find that a class action filed against Queensland electricity operators was not a managed investment scheme.
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said he watched “in horror” as a bill mandating that funded class actions be registered as managed investment schemes passed through Parliament in 2020 without consultation.