A court has signed off on a $600,000 settlement in a class action brought by former members of cult group ‘The Family’ over historical allegations of abuse and torture, including $400,000 for the law firm that ran the litigation.
A law firm that ran two class actions over the St Patrick’s Day bushfires has lost a bid to have group members foot the bill for $50,000 in adverse costs, with a judge saying there was “no basis” for the request.
A barrister who worked on a class action against two security firms over failures in Victoria’s hotel quarantine program has been appointed to the County Court of Victoria, alongside three of his peers.
Victorian aged care homes accused of “major failures” during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic have lost their bid to declass claims of neglect brought in two class actions on behalf of residents and their grieving families.
The lead plaintiff in a class action against security firms Unified and MSS Security over last year’s second COVID-19 wave in Victoria might drag an insurer into the proceedings after Unified went into liquidation.
Fertility clinic Monash IVF says there are “serious questions” about whether a class action that accuses it of destroying viable embryos was validly commenced as a class action.
Payouts in class actions in 2020 largely kept pace with the previous year despite the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, with companies and other defendants paying more than $696 million to settle class actions last year.
A judge will appoint an independent barrister to determine the allocation of settlement proceeds between insured group members and their insurers from two St Patrick’s Day bushfire class actions, finding that the ‘overly combative’ conduct of law firm Maddens warranted the appointment despite the extra costs involved.
A judge has signed off on a $10.5 million settlement in a class action over the 2015 Scotsburn bushfire in Victoria, but slashed the costs of the law firm that brought the case by over $1 million.
Maddens has once again been criticised for its non-compliant costs agreements, three months after receiving similar feedback from a Victoria Supreme Court judge overseeing the firm’s bushfire class actions.