Two far-reaching appeals challenging the court’s power to order all members of an open class action to pay a litigation funder will be heard together, and soon, the Federal Court’s top judge said Thursday.
A class action against Westpac over allegedly excessive insurance premiums has been put on ice after funder JustKapital filed an application to stay the case in the wake of the bank’s appeal challenging the court’s power to make a common fund order.
Westpac is contesting a subpoena in a class action over allegedly excessive life insurance premiums for documents from Deloitte that may reveal how the bank chose the policies it offered.
Class action funding arrangements that siphon off large percentages for commissions and legal fees are “unsustainable”, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said Monday.
The litigation funder at the centre of a challenge by Westpac to the Federal Court’s power to make common fund orders faced a fiery judge in a tense exchange Friday, after it revealed it was weighing a bid to pause a class action against the bank until after the appeal.
A Federal Court judge on Friday called a request for particulars by Qantas “ridiculous”, during the first hearing in a case brought by mechanics alleging they weren’t pay allowances owed while working on assignment in Los Angeles.
ASIC has successfully opposed a Federal Court judge’s push to appoint an independent referee in its case against AMP Financial Planning over alleged insurance churning.
A federal judge has lit a fire under the law firm leading the Westpac life insurance class action, saying if it wanted to apply for a stay while the bank appeals his common fund order, it should do so “immediately”.
A federal judge has signed off on a funding agreement in an employment class action against Airservices, even as he acknowledged a pending challenge to a landmark ruling that established the right of the court to make a common fund order.
Westpac is challenging a judge’s order that gives the funder backing a class action over life insurance premiums a 25 percent cut of any recovery.