Expect increasing emphasis by judges on how much class action members will pocket, as scrutiny of settlements in representative proceedings continues to ramp up, says King & Wood Mallesons in the law firm’s latest class action report.
A judge has ordered engineering services firm CIMIC Group to pay the costs of a 2017 attempt to stay a competing class action against it, saying the bid was one the company “could never have successfully prosecuted”.
The prudential regulator is standing by its decision to bring proceedings against IOOF for alleged breaches of superannuation duties, despite criticism that such a “highly litigious regulatory environment” is placing immense pressure on financial services executives.
The CEO of Sydney’s 2GB and Melbourne’s 3AW radio stations, Adam Lang, has sued the publisher of the Sunday Telegraph for defamation over articles he claims portrayed him as an incompetent, sadistic executive who created a toxic work atmosphere.
The ACCC has won a record $26.5 million penalty against defunct vocational trainer Empower Institute for “duping” disadvantaged customers into enrolling in courses they couldn’t afford with the promise of free laptops and cash.
National car repair franchise Ultra Tune is preparing negligence suits against its former lawyers and auditors, after the company on Friday won a $590,000 reduction in a $2.6 million penalty for breaches of the Franchising Code of Conduct.
James Cook University has followed through on its promise to appeal a $1.2 million judgment awarded against it for the unfair dismissal of physics professor and climate skeptic Peter Ridd.
APRA’s purely documentary case against troubled fund manager IOOF has been dismissed by the Federal Court as “unpersuasive”, “fundamentally inadequate” and “tenuous in the extreme”, in another major blow to financial services regulators pursuing action in the wake of the banking royal commission.
Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns has filed defamation proceedings against the Sunday Telegraph over an article that stated a brothel specialising in bondage had become a “second home” for the rocker.
A national Australian law firm has asked the Federal Court to throw out a sex discrimination claim filed against it by a former partner, on the grounds that no excuse had been provided for her delay in making a complaint other than “a fairly sorry story”.
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