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The stage is set for a beauty parade of two shareholder class actions against Freedom Foods and Deloitte, and the judge overseeing the cases has embraced the recommendation of the High Court to appoint an independent barrister to represent group members in the contest.
A court has ordered Avant Insurance to supply certain documents to a plastic surgeon seeking coverage for legal costs of defending a class action against The Cosmetic Institute over allegedly "incompetent" breast augmentation surgery.
Judges have power to manage competing class actions by picking a winner in a so-called beauty parade, the High Court has ruled, but there is no one size fits all approach to the decision, and the law firm that files first is not guaranteed the coveted prize.
The High Court has set a date for handing down its keenly anticipated judgment in a case that challenged the winner of a beauty contest of class actions against AMP, a decision expected to offer guidance on how courts should tackle the so-called multiplicity problem.
Food and beverage manufacturer Freedom Foods and accounting giant Deloitte have been hit with a second class action by irate investors seeking compensation for "accounting errors" that led to a $590 million write-down in November last year.
A judge has signed off on a settlement in two shareholder class actions against clothing retailer Surfstitch, but has capped the legal costs and commissions sought by the litigation funders after finding the law firms behind the cases sent out notices to group members that were "misleading" and "understated" the risks of joining the class.
The Full Federal Court has tossed an appeal by Treasury Wine Estates claiming that Maurice Blackburn and barrister Guy Donnellan breached their obligations in preparing the pleadings in a current shareholder class action against the global winemaker.
Treasury Wine Estates has accused plaintiffs law firm Maurice Blackburn and barrister Guy Donnellan of "taking advantage" of their privileged position by using evidence discovered in a settled class action to file a second case against the wine maker.
Shareholders who lost a Federal Court trial in their class action against engineering company Worley are challenging the decision to dismiss the case.
That a first filed case should be the presumptive winner in a competition between class actions seemed a losing argument before the High Court on Tuesday as the justices weighed a challenge to a ruling picking one among a group of class actions against AMP, but the court also appeared skeptical of the power to hold wide ranging inquiries into the merits of competing cases.