Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has told the court it will appeal a judgment permanently staying its shareholder class action against AMP over the wealth manager’s fees for no service scandal.
A judge’s decision to pick Maurice Blackburn’s no win, no fee class action against AMP over three funded class actions puts the pressure on litigation funders, which will now face more competition from law firms prepared to go it alone, experts say. The ruling also shows the value courts place on funding arrangements that seek to maximise returns for class members, which means class action beauty parades are sure to get less ugly.
Maurice Blackburn’s shareholder class action against AMP — the only action not backed by a litigation funder — has been picked as the winner in a fierce battle of law firms vying to lead a high stakes case over the wealth manager’s fees for no service scandal.
A ruling by a judge deciding a four-way contest to run a shareholder class action against AMP is expected this week, a judgment significant not just because it is the first time a court in Australia has been asked to choose among so many competing representative cases.
A judge who entertained an anti-suit injunction in the AMP class action jurisdictional battle that set off what another judge called an “unseemly debacle” has ordered the applicant behind the injunction bid to pay costs.
Two rulings Friday keeping alive the common fund order are a ringing endorsement by the courts of the important role that litigation funders play in class actions, experts say, and have paved the way for more funded post-Hayne consumer litigation against banks and other financial services firms this year.
Common fund orders in class actions are legal and not unconstitutional, six judges found Friday after a history-making joint sitting of two appeals courts.
A five-member appeals panel in the NSW Supreme Court has overturned former NSW Labor Minister for Mineral Resources Ian Macdonald’s conviction for wilful misconduct of public office in relation to the Doyles Creek Mining scandal.
A judge overseeing a class action against the NSW government over a contractor who sold injured workers’ information to Bannister Law has questioned the effectiveness of placing ads for group members on law firm websites, saying she didn’t think it would “draw the matter to anyone’s attention”.
Common fund orders are the completion of the notion of class actions envisaged when the regime was introduced 27 years ago, a joint-sitting of two appeals courts was told on the second and last day of a landmark challenge to what has become an oft-used case management tool by trial judges.