A shareholder class action has been filed against medical glove manufacturer Ansell Limited following an earnings guidance downgrade blamed on COVID-19.
A judge has signed off on a 25 per cent group costs order in a class action against Suncorp subsidiary AAI, after accepting that the back-up plan of law firm Maurice Blackburn was not artificially uncertain.
A class action against Optus over a cyberattack that left the data of up to 10 million customers exposed is seeking access to an independent report prepared by Deloitte into the causes of the hack.
The Federal Court has granted a bid by plaintiffs in competing class actions against Downer EDI to transfer their cases to the Victoria Supreme Court, where a four-way contest will take place.
The High Court has dismissed a constitutional appeal by Irish insurer Zurich, clearing the way for a class action over an allegedly defective New Zealand apartment block to proceed in the NSW Supreme Court.
Insurer Vero is fighting a ruling that added it to a class action against cladding manufacturer Fairview Architectural over allegedly combustible cladding.
The judge asked to approve a settlement in a class action against retirement village provider Aveo has sent a shot across the bow to law firms seeking to make broad confidentiality claims over the settlement, saying such claims should be kept “to a minimum” in class actions.
Competing class actions, which a judge recently called a “plague” on the courts, are driving a rise in class actions, with new representative proceedings brought this year set to outpace last year’s filings, according to a report by law firm Allens.
Class actions throw up all manner of ethical conundrums, but a recent Federal Court decision has shined a light on the question of whether funders and law firms should take out loans to run class actions and whether they can charge the costs to group members.
A class action brought on behalf of sovereign bond investors over the disclosure of climate change risks has settled with the government on terms that don’t preclude further proceedings, a court has heard.