A judge has approved $725,000 in fees for Maddens Lawyers in signing off on a $1.2 million settlement in a class action over a 2017 fire at the Coolaroo recycling plant fire in Victoria, saying if the matter went to trial the firm’s bill would “far exceed” the value of the case.
A failed challenge by baby food maker Bellamy’s Australia to a decision rejecting its application to limit legal costs in two class actions was “not strong”, but was not so unreasonable as to put them on the hook for indemnity costs, the Full Federal Court has ruled.
The Suncorp Group unit and directors at the centre of a class action over allegedly conflicted remuneration have slammed the case as “misconceived” and argue it was not validly commenced.
ASIC and other government regulators bringing enforcement action in the docket of one Federal Court judge must abide by a strict new protocol to prevent a repeat of the corporate watchdog’s “wait and see” strategy in a case against ex-Murray Goulburn directors that came close, the judge said, to bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.
A judge has refused a bid by two former Murray Goulburn executives to throw out a disqualification case brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, despite admonishing the corporate regulator for its delay in bringing the case and establishing a protocol for regulators filing cases in his docket.
The plaintiffs in an investor class action filed against Dick Smith’s insurers want a separate hearing from four other representative and company proceedings against the failed electronics retailer, arguing there would be only the “thinnest basis” for concurrent proceedings if their strike out application was successful.
The defendants in the Sydney Opal Tower class action have been formally banned from contacting represented group members about their claims while the proceeding remains on foot, after communications were allegedly sent to apartment owners.
The hearing for a class action against National Australia Bank over allegedly worthless credit card insurance will focus on whether the bank’s allegedly unconscionable behaviour in selling these policies was systemic or confined to individual cases.
Japanese car maker Nissan is facing the threat of a class action in Australia over the continuously variable transmission in its Pathfinder sports utility vehicle, after recently settling five similar class actions in the US over the allegedly faulty transmissions.
Former Dick Smith executives Nick Abboud and Michael Potts have pointed the finger at the defunct electronics retailer’s other directors in response to cross claims by auditor Deloitte, which is named in two shareholder class actions over the company’s collapse.