A judge overseeing a joint class action against Freedom Foods and Deloitte wants to break a bad habit among litigators of attaching to affidavits reams of correspondence between solicitors, and she has a message for legal practitioners — the court is not interested in what lawyers say to each other.
An appeals court has sided with shareholders in their challenge to a ruling tossing a class action against engineering services company Worley, which was found to have had reasonable grounds for issuing overly rosy earnings guidance eight years ago.
Teleco contractor BSA has reached an in-principle settlement resolving a class action that accuses the company of misclassifying its workforce of technicians as independent contractors.
Nando’s Australia has been criticised for claiming that its costs in a dispute against a single franchisee could reach close to $2 million, with an associate judge saying the bill could kickstart a precedent that leads to “the end of litigation as we know it”.
Settlement talks in a class action brought by Shine Lawyers against Astora Women’s Health on behalf of women injured by allegedly defective pelvic mesh products are “well advanced”, while mediation in two similar actions is ongoing, a court has heard.
The funder that was bankrolling a class action alleging pharmacy giant Priceline exercised an “overly prescriptive level of control” on franchisees which limited their profitability has withdrawn its support for the proceeding.
Evidence of anxiety felt by 7-Eleven franchisees leading class actions against the convenience store giant was relevant to whether the funder could earn a $25 million commission from the proceeds of a settlement, a court has heard.
An upcoming three-month trial in a class action against agrochemical giant Monsanto has been vacated after the applicant’s key expert withdrew from the case.
The first order allowing plaintiffs lawyers to take a cut of the proceeds of a class action will guarantee group members in a case against G8 Education at least 72.5 per cent of any recoveries — a notably higher percentage than the minimum legislated by a controversial bill before federal parliament.
Mercedes-Benz has responded to a $650 million lawsuit by Australian dealers over its decision to move to a fixed-price agency model, saying it had a “legitimate commercial interest” in making the change and denying that dealer agreements were “perpetual” in their terms.