ANZ has reached a settlement in long-running class action proceedings alleging it hit customers with illegal fees, but the $1.5 million payout falls far short of the many millions IMF Bentham spent in funding the matter.
The courts should be given express statutory power to resolve competing class actions that establishes the factors to consider when picking a winning case, a leading class action judge has said.
Competing class actions that drag out proceedings can have devastating effects on group members, and whether funded class actions provide genuine access to justice, not just “access to the court’s processes”, was a legitimate question, the head of the Australian Law Reform Commission said Wednesday.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has launched a bid to stay a shareholder class action brought by boutique law firm Phi Finney McDonald after the firm retreated from a plan to consolidate its case with a competing class action run by rival Maurice Blackburn.
Baby food maker Bellamy’s is not giving up its fight to limit the costs of two shareholder class actions against the company, lodging an appeal of a ruling that shut down its cost-capping bid as premature.
An appeals court has dashed the hopes of three group members of a resolved class action over managed investment schemes operated by agribusiness Great Southern Group who sought more time to appeal approval of the settlement deed, which put them on the hook for repaying their loans to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.
Global engineering firm CIMIC Group has been hit with costs after a last-minute subpoena of three new potential witnesses caused the three-week trial that was due to commence later this month to be vacated.
The trial in a much anticipated shareholder class action against engineering firm WorleyParsons scheduled to commence this week has hit a roadblock, with a last minute change in the judge that will hear the matter.
Two rulings Friday keeping alive the common fund order are a ringing endorsement by the courts of the important role that litigation funders play in class actions, experts say, and have paved the way for more funded post-Hayne consumer litigation against banks and other financial services firms this year.
Common fund orders in class actions are legal and not unconstitutional, six judges found Friday after a history-making joint sitting of two appeals courts.