This Month
NSW’s top judge takes aim at Victoria on class actions
NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell says the introduction of contingency fees in Victoria has “skewed” the market for class actions.
- Michael Pelly
- Exclusive
- Legal industry
Lawyer fees for class action against BHP top $680 million
BHP’s portion of the costs for the 22-week trial are forecast to be about £108 million, according to documents filed with Britain’s High Court.
- Ronald Mizen
July
Rich Lister-owned home building empire faces $100m class action
West Australian construction company BGC Housing Group – founded by the late Len Buckeridge and still controlled by the family – is facing a class action from potentially thousands of aggrieved home owners.
- Tom Rabe
Court ruling rejecting weedkiller link to cancer welcomed by farmers
Federal Court rejects class action linking Australia’s most widely used farm chemical, glyphosate, to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
- Brad Thompson
Workers’ rights law firm admits to underpaying staff $300,000
Prominent class action firm Slater & Gordon says there are “no excuses” for the underpayment which was due to a decade-long miscalculation of leave entitlements.
- Maxim Shanahan
Cattle farmers go to war with Labor over class action
Cattle farmers have accused Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus of launching an appalling, contemptuous and “outrageously misleading” attack on them.
- Ronald Mizen
Foreign land buyers take class action against Victorian surcharge
It’s the latest step in a debate between those who argue taxation based on nationality is discriminatory and state governments that say it’s about revenue.
- Michael Bleby
Federal Court allows class action contingency fees
Law firms will be able to run class actions off their own balance sheets in the Federal Court and share in damages awards.
- Ronald Mizen
- Exclusive
- Legal industry
Litigation funder touts 165pc returns in bid to sign up more clients
Pitched as an “ESG asset”, Sydney-based funder CASL aims to raise a further $150 million on top of the $156 million in its first fund.
- Ronald Mizen
June
BHP accuses class action law firm of ‘losing’ 100,000 claimants
BHP lost its claim to have 33,000 claimants struck out of the class action it is defending over the 2015 Mariana dam disaster, but the overall figure still slipped from 700,000 to 600,000.
- Ronald Mizen and Kylar Loussikian
- Exclusive
- Legal industry
Meet the lawyer bringing a $1b class action war chest to Australia
Pogust Goodhead plans to launch three class actions by year’s end and a further seven in the next 18 months.
- Ronald Mizen
May
IAG hit with discounting class action in latest legal headache
The insurance giant says it will defend the Slater and Gordon lawsuit alleging that customers were duped about discounts.
- Liam Walsh
No more ‘go-away’ money as companies take class actions to court
Corporate Australia will no longer pay “go-away” money to avoid shareholder class actions after plaintiff firms lost five major cases in a row, a trend lawyers said would encourage more boards to fight cases in the courts.
- Michael Pelly
- Exclusive
- Legal industry
Hedge fund betting on class actions banks on $135m profit a year
The fund behind largest litigation deal in history expects to make about $135 million a year from the deal, illustrating the huge profits up for grabs for investors.
- Ronald Mizen
Directors welcome ‘no change’ report on disclosure laws
A review of continuous disclosure laws says the end of the no-fault regime for class actions has had no impact on “meritorious” claims
- Michael Pelly
Optus denies ‘cloaking’ Deloitte report on 2022 cyberattack
A press release published after Optus’s 2022 cyberattack had legal purposes, even though they were never mentioned, Optus has argued in a court appeal.
- Jenny Wiggins
Judge chides critics who want to ‘regulate class actions out of existence’
The newest member of the High Court, Justice Robert Beech-Jones, also gave qualified support to competition between courts.
- Michael Pelly
CBA victory shows tide is turning on shareholder claims
The decision is more proof that shareholder claims are no longer a lay-down misere, lawyers say.
- Michael Pelly and Lucas Baird
April
BHP, Vale offer $38b to settle Samarco dam disaster claims
The two mining giants have made a fresh proposal to try and finalise their protracted compensation talks with the Brazilian authorities over the 2015 disaster.
- Hans van Leeuwen
- Exclusive
- Legal industry
Business slams class action lawfare firms
Business groups warn shareholders could be hit with billions of dollars in lawsuits backed by deep pocketed hedge fund investors under the Albanese government’s free-for-all class action setting.
- Ronald Mizen
