A judge has tossed out an application by a group of surgeons who formerly worked for The Cosmetic Institute to declass a representative proceeding on behalf of 13,500 patients who claim they suffered injury or complications from breast augmentation surgery.
A declassing bid by nine doctors in a class action on behalf of women allegedly injured by a one-size-fits-all approach to breast implant surgeries must apply to the entire proceeding, not just the claims against them, a court has heard.
The applicants in a class action against The Cosmetic Institute and twelve doctors over allegedly “incompetent” breast augmentation surgery have won court approval to expand their case to allege misleading and deceptive conduct and breaches of the consumer guarantees in the Australian Consumer Law.
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.
The law firm that led an unfunded class action against the Federal government over the controversial Robodebt scheme will ask the court to approve up to $16 million in legal costs when it seeks approval for the $112 million settlement reached in the class action last year.
The applicant in the settled Robodebt class action has warned a judge he will have a “dispute on [his] hands” if the government presses an argument that law firm Gordon Legal is not entitled to some of its legal fees — an argument the court was told would put the Commonwealth in breach of the settlement deed.
The parties in a class action against the Federal Government over the controversial Robodebt scheme have reached an in principle settlement as the first day of a highly anticipated hearing was scheduled to kick off.
A judge has refused an application by the Federal Government to appeal the expansion of the Robodebt class action pleadings despite finding the case was “troubling”, “weak” and in certain aspects “[made] no sense whatsoever”.
The Federal Government is appealing a judge’s decision to allow the expansion of the Robodebt class action to include claims against five public officers, including Federal Minister Alan Tudge.
A judge has slammed the parties in the Robodebt class action for sparring over the pleadings, one week after the class was given leave to add a claim for exemplary damages and allege knowledge of the program’s unlawfulness on the part of several government officials and federal minister Alan Tudge.