Fifty horse owners may face cross-examination regarding adverse effects allegedly caused by Zoetis’ Hendra virus vaccine, with the company warning a four-week hearing scheduled to begin in March may be insufficient to deal with the horse owners’ evidence.
Pitcher Partners says the lead applicant in a discontinued class action over its auditing of Slater and Gordon should cover the costs for cross-claims it brought against nine parties, including the law firm and several of its former directors.
Lawyer Alex Elliott was complicit in a plan by his late father to mislead the court and group members in the Banksia class action, to conceal conflicts of interest and to profit from the case at the expense of debenture holders, a judge has been told.
Dam operator Sunwater wants evidence from Maurice Blackburn, the law firm behind the landmark Queensland flood class action, showing how the applicant will calculate aggregate damages for around 6,800 group members.
Insurance Australia Group will fork over $138 million to settle a class action brought against two subsidiaries alleging they engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by pushing worthless insurance on motor vehicle purchasers.
McMillan Shakespeare has settled a class action alleging one of its units engaged in unfair tactics and unconscionable conduct in the sale of car warranties that offered “no benefit or value” to consumers.
The Murray Goulburn class action run by Elliott Legal bears similarities to the Banksia class action, a case rife with scandal and offered up by opponents as proof of the problems with the class action regime. The leading lawyers were the same in both cases. In one they have abandoned any claim to their fees and have walked away from their careers. In the other they walked away with $5 million.
The Federal Government could face a class action seeking compensation for Indigenous Australians forcibly removed from their families in the Northern Territory from 1910 to the 1970s.
An appeals court has dismissed a second bid by lawyer Alex Elliott to have the judge overseeing the Banksia class action disqualified from hearing claims that he, like his late father, was party to an alleged fraudulent scheme in running the litigation.
The Federal Government is appealing a judge’s decision to allow the expansion of the Robodebt class action to include claims against five public officers, including Federal Minister Alan Tudge.