Class action experts have knocked several recommendations from the Parliamentary Joint Committee for reforming the class action system, including that group members be guaranteed at least 70 per cent of any settlement or judgment, saying this would be challenging to implement and could make disputes harder to resolve.
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A group representing plaintiff law firm has lampooned recommendations from the government’s latest inquiry into class actions, including that the country’s continuous disclosure laws be permanently relaxed, saying they give corporations the green light to fleece consumers and mislead investors.
The latest inquiry report into class actions has put forward a suite of recommendations that would remake the class action regime by empowering the Federal Court to vary litigation funding agreements, requiring judges to hold class action beauty parades and making permanent the government’s temporary changes to continuous disclosure laws.
A judge has signed off on settlements in two class actions against a defunct Sydney-based financial advisory firm by a group of Chinese investors over a property investment and visa scheme that allegedly saw group members lose $30 million in funds.
Rival bookmakers Sportsbet and Sportsbetting.com.au have reached a settlement in their trade mark and consumer law dispute, agreeing to drop their claims against each other for unspecified terms.
Victoria’s Attorney General Jill Hennessy will step down from her ministerial role in the Andrews government to spend more time with her two teenage daughters, the politician announced Wednesday.
Women’s fashion designer Pinnacle Runway has cut its losses and dropped its challenge to a ruling that found a rival’s use of the name ‘Delphine’ to describe a bikini style did not constitute trade mark infringement, after a judge hit the company with indemnity costs for pursuing the ‘ill-advised’ lawsuit.
The prudential regulator has reduced a requirement that Allianz Australia hold an extra $250 million in capital by $100 million, noting steps the insurer had taken to improve its risk management. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority imposed the additional capital requirement on the insurer’s Australian unit in August last year, due to issues raised in…
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has filed civil penalty proceedings against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for allegedly saddling consumers with $2.9 million in inflated interest rates on their business overdraft accounts on more than 12,000 occasions.