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 has rejected a bid by Uber to significantly trim a class action brought by Maurice Blackburn on behalf of successors and assignees or taxi drivers after the law firm unsuccessfully sought to add them to a separate class action against the ride share giant.
Lawyers for the lead applicant in a stayed class action against Bayer-owned Monsanto over its weedkiller Roundup cannot access discovered documents in a separate class action against the agricultural giant in advance of mediation next year.
A class action filed by Maurice Blackburn against NAB units MLC and NULIS was invalidly commenced thanks to a carve out in the Supreme Court Act that bars class actions involving trust property, the Victoria Supreme Court has found.
A judge has found that a litigation funder’s involvement in settlement negotiations without the presence of the applicant’s lawyers in a shareholder class action against Spotless Group, which recently settled for $95 million, was “inappropriate”.
The lead applicant in a class action against Bayer over allegedly defective Essure contraceptive devices will ask the court to discontinue its claims against two makers of the controversial medical implants.
Rideshare giant Uber Technologies has lost a bid to keep its in-house legal team from handing over emails to a class action brought by Australian taxi drivers as well as the company behind the GoCatch taxi app.
A judge has raised doubts about claims of loss and damage in a class action by members of superannuation funds operated by NAB units MLC and NULIS over alleged MySuper mismanagement, as he determines a challenge to whether the case was validly brought as a class action.
A judge has signed off on a $95 million settlement in a shareholder class action against Spotless after a heated exchange saw the funders backing the lawsuit drop their bid for $1.5 million in costs above their commission.
Two National Australia Bank units are trying to shut down a Maurice Blackburn-led class action over alleged superannuation mismanagement, claiming that the proceeding was invalidly commenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria.