Victoria will continue to be a magnet for class actions after the High Court shot down solicitors’ common fund orders as clashing with NSW law, but the door may still be open for garden state lawyers to try their luck in the Federal Court.
The High Court has unanimously found the Federal Court has no power to allow solicitors to take a cut of a settlement or judgment in a shareholder class action against Blue Sky, saying it would be contrary to rules against contingency fees in NSW.
The High Court has upheld a decision that found Helensburgh Coal should have tried to redeploy 22 workers it dismissed as redundant and replaced with contractors.
Mercedes-Benz dealers are pressing on with their $650 million battle over the luxury car maker’s move to a fixed-priced agency model, taking their case to the High Court.
OpenAI has successfully blocked an Australian company’s bid to trade mark the name of an AI immigration service that uses the suffix ‘GPT’.
Carnival has lost an appeal of a finding in a class action that it was negligent in preventing a COVID-19 outbreak aboard the Ruby Princess cruise ship, but an appeal by the applicant over damages has also failed.
The number of reported threats to judges is growing at an alarming rate, and urgent action by federal and state attorneys-general is needed, according to the Australia’s peak body for judicial officers.
The applicant in one of four declassed COVID-19 business interruption class actions has reached a settlement under which it will receive $100,000 and the funder the backed the case will pay $1 million towards Insurance Australia’s costs.
A judge has expressed worries that a class action against EY and collapsed Blue Sky Alternative Investments is “drifting” amid concerns from the defendants about “indulgent” discovery and potentially “significant” pleading changes.
The legal watchdog’s latest case against the owners of a Melbourne law firm — part of countless “collateral” proceedings between the parties — should be fixed for a final hearing ASAP, a judge has said.