Common fund orders are the completion of the notion of class actions envisaged when the regime was introduced 27 years ago, a joint-sitting of two appeals courts was told on the second and last day of a landmark challenge to what has become an oft-used case management tool by trial judges.
The ABC has called for a “clearer articulation” of former managing director Michelle Guthrie’s unfair sacking claims against the broadcaster ahead of court-ordered mediation.
The judge overseeing a class action against Ethicon over allegedly faulty pelvic mesh implants has shot down the device maker’s bid for a class closure order.
US-based chemical and materials technology company Cytec Industries has filed a patent lawsuit against a unit of Ecolab, after a delegate for IP Australia gave the water technology company a third chance to amend its patent for preventing sediment buildup on mining equipment.
The court overseeing the ACCC’s collusion case against rail freight operators Aurizon and Pacific National has granted a confidentiality request by BlueScope Steel over documents subpoenaed after the steel company told the court trucks were not a viable alternative for transporting its goods in Queensland.
Accounting firm Pitcher Partners will challenge a ruling that it owes a NSW bus operator $5.6 million in damages for fraudulently concealing a costly amortisation error.
An appeal before a historic joint sitting of two courts over so-called common fund orders in class actions kicked off Monday with a full bench of six judges and a packed courtroom hearing arguments by eminent barristers for BMW and Westpac that the orders are either preemptive or pointless.
Deloitte is challenging a judge’s ruling that certain partners not be excused from an order to produce files of the accounting giant’s audit work for Hastie Group to shareholders in a class action over the construction company’s collapse, its latest move after a failed attempt to persuade the judge that a rogue partner had taken the only copies of the files and refused to give them back.
Two barristers suing DLA Piper over $370,000 in fees did not perform all the work for which they billed the law firm, a court heard Monday.
Class action experts have come to the defence of boutique law firm Phi Finney McDonald as heavyweight Maurice Blackburn appeals a judge’s ruling to choose the “less experienced” firm to lead a shareholder class action against BHP Billiton.