The state of Western Australia is facing a class action by Indigenous workers seeking to recover stolen wages, after a historic $190 million settlement was reached last year in a stolen wages class action against the state of Queensland.
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 Murray Goulburn class action run by Elliott Legal bears similarities to the Banksia class action, a case rife with scandal and offered up by opponents as proof of the problems with the class action regime. The leading lawyers were the same in both cases. In one they have abandoned any claim to their fees and have walked away from their careers. In the other they walked away with $5 million.
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.
The judge overseeing a settled class action against Murray Goulburn, which earned millions of dollars for the same legal team accused of serious misconduct in the running of the Banksia class action, invited the parties last month to reopen the case, concerned he had been misled when approving the lawyers’ costs.
Women’s fashion designer Pinnacle Runway must pay indemnity costs for pursuing what a judge has described as an “ill-advised” trade mark infringement lawsuit against a rival that “cried out to be settled”.
The need to properly prepare a large commercial class action is not reason enough to relieve lawyers of COVID-19 restrictions aimed at protecting the health and safety of Victorians, the Federal Court’s chief judge has said in explaining why he denied a bid by the Melbourne-based legal team behind the Crown Resorts class action to have the case declared a priority.
A judge has denied a request to grant priority status to a shareholder class action against Crown Resorts that would have allowed the Melbourne-based legal team running the case to access childcare and leave their homes for work while the state of Victoria remains in lockdown.
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.
Describing as “preposterous” the prospect of running a six-week trial in a class action against Crown Resorts from her kitchen table with three children at home, the Melbourne-based barrister for the lead applicant is again urging the Federal Court to declare the case a priority matter.