Mortgage lending and investment firm RMBL Investments has been ordered to withdraw all communications with its customers that encouraged them to opt-out of a consumer protection class action against the firm.
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.
Crown Resorts has appealed a ruling in a shareholder class action against it allowing 18 former employees, who were jailed as part of the Chinese government’s crackdown on gambling, to answer questions about its business in China.
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 hearing scheduled for later this year in several class actions and an ACCC proceeding over allegations Volkswagen installed dual-mode software in diesel vehicles to cheat on emissions tests has been postponed, despite cries of prejudice from the consumer regulator.
Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers is resisting a notice to produce audit files in a consolidated shareholder class action over the collapse of education and training company Vocation, arguing its partners face a real risk of criminal and civil penalty proceedings and are entited to claim privilege against self-incrimination.
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.
The lead applicant in a shareholder class action against global engineering firm CIMIC Group has made a bid for indemnity costs, after a last-minute subpoena of three former executives led to the trial being vacated.
A judge has consolidated two shareholder class actions brought against chain logistics company Brambles by Slater & Gordon and Maurice Blackburn, despite the rival firms failing to reach an agreement on the terms of the consolidation following a judge’s criticism of the class action “beauty parade”.
A judge has granted a bid to add former Radio Rentals CEO James Marshall and the beleaguered company’s insurer, AIG Australia, as respondents in a class action, over the protests of Marshall’s lawyer, who said his client couldn’t afford to pay for his defence.