The Full Federal Court has overturned a historic judgment that found the federal minister for the environment owed a duty of care to Australians under 18 to protect them from ‘catastrophic’ harm caused by the approval of the Vickery coal mine expansion.
An appeals court has sided with shareholders in their challenge to a ruling tossing a class action against engineering services company Worley, which was found to have had reasonable grounds for issuing overly rosy earnings guidance eight years ago.
The law firm administering the $112 million Robodebt class action settlement has asked a court to sign off on a $2.2 million bill to cover the full projected costs of distributing the funds, a figure three times the estimate calculated by a costs referee.
Even after 30 years in action, the future of class actions in Australia remains uncertain. What is clear, however, is the impact class actions have had – for claimants, lawyers, litigation funders and for corporate Australia, writes Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s Chris Pagent, Brad Woodhouse, Alex Ji and Thomas Scott.
Cricket Tasmania has denied allegations by a former front receptionist that she was the victim of sexual harassment by Australian cricket players and senior managers, and says she has not suffered loss as a result of any alleged misbehaviour.
A former Fair Work Commission vice president has sued the ABC for allegedly tricking him into participating in a Four Corners interview about his relationship with controversial union figure Kathy Jackson, who was found to have misused $1.4 million in union funds.
The access to justice and efficiency objectives of the 30-year class action regime would be better served by more active scrutiny at the point of commencement, say Allens partners Belinda Thompson and Jenny Campbell.
As we reach the 30-year anniversary of the modern form of class action in Australia, an enduring characteristic of class action practice in this country is that the area is not well-suited to those who enjoy certainty or predictability, say Jason Betts, Aoife Xuereb and Melissa Gladstone-Joyce of Herbert Smith Freehills.
A Tasmanian environmental group is taking the state and federal governments to court over a mining company’s plan to dump toxic waste into Tarkine rainforest in the island’s north west, which the group says could lead to the extinction of the Tasmanian masked owl.
Three decades on from its rocky beginnings, when representatives of the coalition opposition decried the Part IVA bill as a “monstrosity” and as “looney”, “half baked” and “wrong” during parliamentary debates, the class action procedure and its legitimacy and efficacy have come to gain acceptance across the spectrum of practitioners and among the judiciary, says Maurice Blackburn’s Julian Schimmel.