A judge weighing a $38.4 million settlement in a shareholder class action against aged care provider Estia Health has been told that two NSW Court of Appeal judgments barring class closure were “plainly wrong”, but in deciding whether to lock group members out of the settlement the judge says he won’t need to grapple with the landmark rulings.
A judge has shot down what he called a “risky” but novel proposal by 7-Eleven for a pre-trial ruling on sample objections to the relevance of evidence in two franchise class actions.
The Western Australian state government has hit back at a class action brought by Indigenous workers seeking to recover unpaid wages, saying there was no breach of duty because the law at the time allowed the workers to be employed without pay.
A $440 million settlement by the State of Queensland and dam operator Sunwater resolving a class action over the 2011 Queensland floods has been approved by a NSW judge.
UK-based Woodsford Litigation Funding has become the first overseas funder authorised to finance Australian class actions under recent laws cracking down on the litigation funding industry.
A director of Gold Coast accounting firm Oculus has lost his bid to represent the company in a class action by investors in failed music streaming platform Guvera, with a judge unconvinced the company lacked the means to fund the litigation and finding the director was not suitable to represent the company.
The judge overseeing the first ever bid for a group costs order in a class action that will give the plaintiff’s law firm a percentage cut of the proceeds has urged the firm to rethink characterising its own solicitor as an expert.
Restaurant chain Hog’s Breath Café is facing a class action for allegedly misappropriating franchisee funds meant for advertising, including by paying a director’s girlfriend as a “consultant”.
Staff members who worked for two Melbourne aged care providers will be removed as group members in class actions accusing the homes of negligently handling the coronavirus pandemic.
A Federal Court judge has ordered that a referee consider how junior barristers were used in assessing the legal costs in an insurance class action against Westpac which the bank has agreed to pay up to $30 million to settle.