Australia is not the haven for class actions that critics have claimed, according to a new report that shoots down the notion that the country is just behind litigation-happy US when it comes to targeting corporations in court.
The litigation funder behind the Federal Court’s precedential ruling that established the first common fund order in an Australian class action agreed to cuts its rates as part of negotiations that resulted in the $132.5 million settlement of the class action against QBE Insurance.
The law firm behind one of four AMP class actions in Federal Court might call for an anti-anti-suit injunction in response to a threat by a NSW Supreme Court judge to block the actions from proceeding in favour of the lone case filed against the wealth manager in state court.
Facing cross-examination over the law firm’s bid to add fraud and deceit claims to a class action against Fitch Ratings, a Squire Patton Boggs lawyer exchanged fire with a barrister for the ratings agency, saying Fitch was having a regular “whinge” about discovery and “no” she would not take the comment back.
The judge overseeing a class action against Johnson & Johnson over allegedly defective vaginal mesh products has asked the applicants to weigh in on a recent UK High Court ruling that found there must be an abnormal risk in order for a product to be considered defective.
A trial is set to kick off at the end of July in two class actions brought on behalf of holders of debentures who allege they suffered losses due to Australian Executor Trustees’ mismanagement of debenture issuer Provident Capital.
Despite the growth in class actions and the increasing popularity of litigation funding, many funders won’t be able to able to survive in the inherently risky business, Burford Capital managing director Craig Arnott told Lawyerly.
Multiple class actions against troubled sandalwood oil producer Quintis will soon compete to stay alive after a court heard Tuesday the company would bring an application to stay or consolidate the cases.
IMF Bentham is considering funding a privacy class action against Facebook for allowing political research firm Cambridge Analytica to harvest information from the Facebook accounts of over 311,000 Australians.
The plaintiffs in a shareholder class action against Commonwealth Bank have taken another stab at their statement of claim, after a judge struck down the part of their pleading alleging the bank’s systems for assessing money laundering and terrorism financing risk were deficient.