A law firm representing a property developer in an investigation of a potential class action against failed asset manager Blue Sky Alternative Investments is seeking access to the firm’s insurance documents to decide whether it is “worthwhile” to launch proceedings.
Law firms have railed against proposed legislation to ensure group members receive 70 per cent of any recoveries from class actions, saying the reforms were designed to “cripple” group proceedings.
While acknowledging it was a ‘loaded’ word, a judge has rejected a bid by the federal government to edit out the word ‘stolen’ from a notice to members of the third stolen wages class action brought by Shine Lawyers.
A judge has vacated a March hearing in a class action against cruise operator Carnival over last year’s Ruby Princess COVID-19 outbreak, a week after resolving an almost year-long dispute about whether overseas passengers could be part of the proceeding.
A local government has been ordered to repay its residents the tens of thousands of dollars they spent on an invalid canal maintenance levy, in what was the first class action victory to be recorded in the Queensland Supreme Court.
Cruise operator Carnival has lost its bid to exclude US and UK passengers from a class action over the 2020 Ruby Princess COVID-19 outbreak, with a judge finding the Federal Court was not a “clearly inappropriate forum” to hear the dispute.
A judge will allow workers in a sham contracting class action against technical services contractor BSA to rejoin the case after opting out, saying the company’s communications during the opt out period were capable of misleading “at least a significant proportion” of group members.
A shareholder class action against defunct fund manager Blue Sky Investments and others will be filed by the end of the year, Lawyerly has learned.
Reforms by the Morrison government passed earlier this month weakening continuous disclosure obligations will spur corporate defendants to engage in “expensive interlocutory warfare” to shut down class actions right off the bat, and plaintiffs lawyers are waiting to see how the courts interpret the new laws to determine these early strike-out fights.
With mediation failing to resolve an expansive class action against the federal government over its use of allegedly toxic firefighting foam, a judge has charted a plan to avoid a “Brobdingnagian” trial and efficiently determine the claims of group members around eight military bases across Australia.