A judge is weighing up a law firm’s high legal costs against a union’s “bizarre” delay in a stoush over who should run a case against McDonald’s alleging 100,000 workers were denied rest breaks.
The fees of a class action firm found to have breached cost disclosure rules in running two underpayments class actions against supermarket chain Romeo’s have been adjusted up, after $260,000 was initially cut from the bill by the Federal Court.
A class action against Bayer over its Essure contraceptive has lost a bid to knock out the pharmaceutical giant’s defence that argues any defects in the device could not have been discovered given the state of scientific knowledge at the time the implants were sold in Australia.
A busy judge has pushed the parties in a class action against agrochemical giant Monsanto to split the trial to focus first on the question of whether the company’s Roundup weed killer causes cancer so that he can avoid writing a judgment of “hundreds and hundreds” of pages.
Pet and livestock drug company Zoetis, which prevailed in its defence to a class action over horse vaccine Equivac, is going after the legal team that ran the unfunded case, seeking orders that the lawyers pay a big portion of its $3.8 million legal bill.
Two judges on the Full Court bench hearing arguments over power to make common fund orders when approving class action settlements appeared to tip their hand on Monday, chipping away at a High Court judgment that has sowed deep division.
A judge has approved a $12 million payment to the funder of two franchisee class actions against 7-Eleven, even as the funder plans to appeal a decision rejecting its bid for a common fund order for a $24.5 million commission.
The Albanese government will urge the court to shut down a Shine Lawyers-led class action against McDonald’s for allegedly denying workers rest breaks and allow a similar $250 million case by the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association to proceed instead.
A judge has questioned a bid by cruise operator Scenic Tours to water down a class action brought over a series of European cruises that went ahead in 2018 despite a record-breaking drought that saw river levels drop so low they became impassable.
A judge has declined a bid by former United Petroleum franchisees to stay two Federal Court proceedings in light of a class action against the petrol giant over the introduction of loss-making Pie Face stores, finding the suits have little in common.