Slater and Gordon has agreed to consolidate its data breach class action against Medibank with one brought by Baker McKenzie, after the judge overseeing the cases railed against competing class actions.
Shine Lawyers’ bid to recoup “exorbitant” interest on a loan it took out to run pelvic mesh class actions against Johnson & Johnson has raised new ethical dilemmas beyond the usual “sweaty palms and huge vexation” in most group proceedings, a judge has said.
The proposed $1.5 billion merger of Australian Clinical Labs and Healius — two of Australia’s largest pathology services providers — is likely to substantially lessen competition, the ACCC has warned.
A union representing 54 junior doctors alleging they were systemically underpaid has defeated a bid by NSW Health to stay its case until the determination of a related class action on behalf of tens of thousands of medical officers.
A junior doctor representing thousands of medical officers in NSW has thwarted an application by the state to declass her group proceeding, with a judge saying a “single determination” of the issues common to all group members was the most efficient way of resolving them.
A judge has adjourned a trial in a case brought by junior doctors seeking to recoup alleged unpaid overtime, despite noting his annoyance over the applicants’ “180 degree turn” on the question of whether the hearing should await delivery of judgment in a related case.
A class action over pelvic mesh products supplied by device makers Covidien and TFS has reached a global resolution with the manufacturers and their insurers which brings the recovery total in settled mesh class action close to $450 million.
Novartis unit Sandoz has won its bid to stay a case by rival Lundbeck, including orders for damages previously calculated at $26.3 million and counting, despite having succeeded at the High Court in a dispute over its patent for blockbuster antidepressant Lexapro.
A psychiatrist has reached a confidential settlement with Harper Collins in his defamation case over a book about the controversial deep sleep therapy at the Chelmsford Private Hospital in the 1970s.
A judge has cautioned two law firms running competing shareholder class actions over last October’s cyber attack on Medibank that they must keep their focus on the best interests of clients and group members, saying lawyers can lose sight of that duty when arguing for their case.