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A late proposal by the Australian Law Reform Commission to introduce a 'leave to proceed' mechanism into class actions has been blasted by a major litigation funder and a plaintiffs-side law firm as a de facto class certification procedure that would ramp up costs and add years of delay to cases.
The court's authority to shut down competing class actions is no longer in doubt after Tuesday's Full Federal Court judgment in the case against GetSwift, and while there is no "silver bullet" when it comes to how judges must deal with multiple proceedings, there are key factors to weigh, the appeals court said. Here, experts provide the big takeaways from the landmark ruling.
Maurice Blackburn and Phi Finney McDonald have sidestepped a competing class action battle in the high-stakes litigation against Commonwealth Bank of Australia over alleged breaches of money laundering laws, with the firms proposing to jointly lead a consolidated class action against the bank.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief Matt Comyn has pointed the finger at his predecessor, Ian Narev, for the bank's selling of credit insurance to ineligible customers, claiming the former CEO failed to heed advice and stop selling the products.
The scope of the government's power to detain individuals is "a matter of considerable public importance", a judge has said, shooting down the Commonwealth's bid for costs after it won the dismissal of a class action brought on behalf of asylum seekers who allege they were unlawfully imprisoned in Australian immigration detention centres.
Maurice Blackburn's battle with the Australian Taxation Office over a tax bill on class action settlements for thousands of Black Saturday bushfire victims went to court Tuesday, and the landmark case may turn on whether or not the law firm's administration of the settlement distribution scheme counts as a business.
An attempt by Crown Resorts to block ex-employees from talking to class action lawyers about the casino giant's thwarted business in China was contrary to the public interest, a judge heard Monday.
A third law firm is investigating a possible class action to compensate property owners for the cost of removing highly combustible aluminium cladding, believed to be in the majority of buildings in Australia.
Maurice Blackburn is investigating a possible class action after the share price of Corporate Travel Management plunged 27 percent on Wednesday, and will look at the role of VGI Partners in the sudden stock drop.
As judges grapple with fierce competition among litigation funders and law firms to lead class actions, Lawyerly asked two leading practitioners on opposing sides of the class action divide to give us their take on the issue.