A judge considering bids to de-class COVID-19 business interruption class actions has said group members can sign up for the representative proceedings but later decide to make claims directly with their insurers.
A judge has rejected a bid by in-fighting group members to bar children and non-Aboriginal residents in the Wreck Bay community from receiving a cut of an approved $22 million settlement over alleged PFAS contamination.
On the first day of a seven-week trial, the applicant in a class action against Monsanto has taken aim at the agrochemical giant’s “same old approach” to undermining decades of evidence it says demonstrates the cancer-causing properties of popular weed killer Roundup.
Agrochemical giant Monsanto is digging in for a fight in a class action over its alleged carcinogenic weed killer, Roundup, having refused to budge in mediation despite a $16 billion settlement in the US.
A judge overseeing the defamation trial of former commando Heston Russell said he was “disturbed” by an ABC press release following the broadcaster’s decision to drop its public interest defence on the eve of trial, which was reinstated days later.
A judge hearing closing submissions in Heston Russell’s defamation case against the ABC has expressed “significant reservations” about evidence by the former commando and said that a “less than complete” story could still be protected under the new public interest defence.
A judge has said that an underpayments class action’s challenge to hospitality giant Merivale’s argument that it does not owe back wages because it relied on an enterprise agreement it believed was valid should be heard before trial.
The judge hearing a trial in defamation cases by former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann against TV broadcasters ABC and Ten has said he expects both Lehrmann and alleged rape victim Brittany Higgins to take the witness stand.
A judge has blessed a $132.7 million settlement and a $33 million common fund order in a class action over toxic firefighting foam, saying he was “not vexed” by whether he had power to grant the funder’s payout despite the Full Court having reserved on the contentious issue.
A judge has approved a $41.45 million settlement in a pelvic mesh class action against manufacturers Covidien and TFS but has put off deciding on the costs of the firm that ran the case, saying it is “next to useless” when law firms appoint their own costs consultants.