Judges

A judge on Friday will hear arguments in a bid by BHP Billiton to halt a class action over the mining giant's Brazilian mine disaster, a sweeping case filed on behalf of investors who held the company's shares in Australia, the UK or South Africa.

The litigation funder underwriting a class action against Myer will have to fork over another $950,000 in security ahead of what will be a rare shareholder trial starting next Wednesday, a court has ruled.

The first day of a liability hearing in a consumer case over GlaxoSmithKline's marketing for its popular Voltaren products has seen an ACCC witness deflect accusations the regulator was vague about its misleading packaging concerns, placing the blame squarely on the pharmaceutical giant.

A judge has denied ASIC's bid to appoint an interim receiver to preserve the assets of three financial services companies that advised clients to invest in complex derivatives, which ASIC is seeking to have wound up for alleged violations of the Corporations Act.

Fundraising company Appco told a judge Friday that it faced an 'injustice' if a wage case were allowed to proceed as a class action on behalf of over 1,000 workers, but the judge was not impressed, saying the argument made 'no sense' to him.

Eight former directors of failed mining company Kagara have settled a shareholder class action alleging they misled investors and falsified the company's accounting records, the Federal Court heard Friday.

Fundraising company Appco Australia challenged the similarities between group members in a class action alleging it misclassified workers as independent contractors to avoid paying minimum wage and benefits, even after a judge shot down its bid to block the case from proceeding as a class action. 

Investors in a class action against failed online retailer Surfstitch Group won access Thursday to transcripts of interviews of former boss Justin Cameron by the corporate watchdog.

The funders of two class actions against a trustee of failed investment groups LKM Capital and GR Finance have agreed to cut their commission by 15 percentage points.

The amicus hired to assess the funder's cut of a potentially record settlement in several class actions against S&P Global over toxic financial products has told the judge that if he's considering approving a funding equalisation order, he should “start with a blank piece of paper” in calculating a reasonable funder's commission.