Eight law firms made it to the courthouse door just under the wire last week, filing class actions on the eve of regulations that will require funders to register their class actions as managed investment schemes.
Two insurance companies have been joined as respondents to a class action against forestry giant Gunns over the failure of six managed investment schemes for eucalyptus wood in Tasmania.
Insurance policies that may be worth up to $46 million and have derailed settlement approval in two class actions against sandalwood producer Quintis were “cobbled together” and contained errors and omissions, a court has heard.
AMP, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are facing potential class actions over commissions grandfathered by the FoFA reforms and the firms alleged failure to protect client interests.
The law firm running an underpayments class action against petrol convenience store chain On The Run has been ordered to issue a notice correcting certain statements made on its website about the company and the class action, including that the claims in the case are worth up to $70 million.
A former administrative assistant at Piper Alderman who was not allowed to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic says she was terminated for taking parental leave and complaining about a special counsel’s “intimidating and aggressive behaviour”.
The operator of Dreamworld in Queensland has pleaded guilty to three charges over the 2016 deaths of four people on the theme park’s now demolished Thunder River Rapids ride.
Ardent Leisure, which operates the Dreamworld theme park in Queensland, has been hit with three charges over four deaths that occurred at the theme park in 2016 following a ride malfunction.
A judge has cut a request a security for costs in half in insurance rectification proceedings stemming from two class against sandalwood producer Quintis, saying the amount proposed by the funders bankrolling the case was “quite generous”.
Global animal health company Zoetis has told the lead applicants in a class action over horse vaccines to “put up or shut up” and produce evidence disclosing an alleged scientific link between the hendra virus vaccine and certain alleged adverse side effects.