The High Court’s abolition of the so-called Chorley exception does not apply to a party’s in-house counsel, which is still permitted to seek its own legal costs for prosecuting or defending a proceeding, a judge has found.
The six-week trial in four defamation cases brought by war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith has been pushed off because of restrictions on in-person hearings and the Attorney-General’s decision to invoke national security law and cloak the proceedings in secrecy.
The first-past-the-post principle applies to enforcement of settlements in collective actions over a 2014 bushfire in Western Australia, a judge has held, in a ruling that could have ramifications for all class actions.
Arnold Bloch Leibler has been granted access to due diligence docs related to Slater and Gordon’s $1.2 billion acquisition of professional services firm Quindell, to use in its defence of a class action over advice it gave on the troubled acquisition.
A judge has signed off on a $49.5 million settlement in a class action against National Australia Bank over ‘junk insurance’, including millions in fees for the firm that brought the case on a no-win, no-fee basis, despite calling the settlement sum a “substantial compromise”.
The parties in two class actions against 7-Eleven brought on behalf of franchisees have agreed to delay an upcoming hearing by ten months, due to challenges with discovery, evidence and witness statements resulting from coronavirus-related restrictions.
A common fund order made at the outset of a class action against the state of Queensland over stolen wages opened the historic $190 million settlement up to “thousands more” disadvantaged people who were affected by the state government’s “discriminatory, unjust…and disgraceful” policies, a judge has said.
A judge has declined to put a Maurice Blackburn-led class action against AMP on hold while the High Court decides whether to overturn a ruling awarding the firm carriage of the matter following a high-stakes battle against three other law firms.
Seven car makers defending class actions over defective Takata airbags have confirmed they will not be challenging a landmark decision that set aside a pre-settlement class closure order in the cases.
Economic uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic could see an increase in partner poaching among law firms in the coming months, according to several industry experts.
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