Commenting on the unprecedented nature of the case against her client — the so-called postbox solicitor in the Banksia Securities class action — a senior barrister has told a court of her shock at the conduct of her former colleague at the bar, Norman O’Bryan, who acted as lead counsel in the scandal-ridden litigation.
A judge has questioned whether the lead applicant in a class action over sleep apnea machines with alleged safety defects was “appropriately resourced” to run the case against health tech giant Philips.
Group members in a class action by Papua New Guinea workers against labour hire firm CoreStaff would get less than half of a $6.4 million settlement if the funder that backed the case seeks a common funder order for a 35 per cent commission.
The Full Federal Court has appointed a contradictor to “take up the cudgels” against funder Litigation Capital Management, which has challenged a judgment refusing to find that a class action filed against Queensland electricity operators was not a managed investment scheme.
The High Court will hear a challenge by Western Power to an appeals court judgment which found that the state-owned electricity supplier breached its duty of care to inspect power poles on private land and was partly liable for property damage from the 2014 Perth Hills bushfire.
A judge has censured Domino’s Pizza and the lead applicant in an underpayments class action, saying their lack of cooperation made his “blood boil”.
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said he watched “in horror” as a bill mandating that funded class actions be registered as managed investment schemes passed through Parliament in 2020 without consultation.
Australia ranks second in the world for climate-related lawsuits, and the threat of climate litigation looms larger than ever for Australian companies across all sectors, a new report has found.
A Federal Court judge has criticised “inappropriate” class action reforms pushed by the government, saying the courts have done a “good job” of crafting solutions to deal with issues that arise in the class action regime.
The Full Federal Court was emphatic in its decision that the environment minister does not owe a duty of care to Australian children to shield them from climate change harm, but there is no doubt the law will be put to the test again soon, says Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s Louise Camenzuli, Julia Green and Max Newman.